What Makes Water Pure and Purifying?
Al-Wajeez: The Book of Purification - Water, Sea Water, and the Permissibility of Sea Creatures
Summary
This lecture covers the opening chapters of al-Wajeez, a classical Islamic jurisprudence text, focusing on the book of purification (kitab al-tahara). The instructor explains that purification encompasses two types: purification from spiritual impurity (al-hadath) through wudu, ghusl, and tayammum, and purification from physical filth of the body, clothing, and prayer place. The foundational principle discussed is that water from above or naturally from the earth is inherently pure and purifying. The instructor provides Quranic evidence from Surat al-Furqan (25:48) and hadith evidence from the Prophet's response about sea water being pure and its dead creatures being permissible to eat. An extended narrative explains how companions understood that any creature living primarily in water is permissible to consume, illustrated through the story of companions finding a whale and the Prophet's confirmation of their actions.
Note: This transcript was generated using YouTube's automatic captioning, with AI-assisted cleanup for readability. It may contain inaccuracies due to background noise, audio quality, or limitations of the transcription software — particularly during Arabic recitation. Listener discretion is advised; please refer to the original video for precise wording.
Continuing in al-Wajeez fi kitab al-tahara. In al-Wajeez in the book of purification. The first chapter that the author is going to mention in this book, which is the book of purification. So, this book is going to speak about two things, right? Purification of the Who was here yesterday? Come on. Two things. Purification of More more general than that. No. Purification al-tahara min al-najasat.
[Arabic recitation]
Right? Purification of the clothes, the body, the place of salah. Purification from filth. And purification from a spiritual impurity, which is al-hadath. Right? Which prevents a person from making salah. And so that is going to include wudu, ghusl, and tayammum. So one is going to include wudu, ghusl, tayammum, all of that purification. The second, it's going to include purification of the body, the clothing, and the place of salah. Right? So it's two purifications, kitab al-tahara. It is going to speak about purification from the different types of filth, and it's going to speak about purification from al-hadath, right? Spiritual impurity that we will discuss. And both of these things, both of these types of purification, are primarily obtained and primarily acquired by way of water. Water is the main thing that is used for both types of purification. So it's only appropriate that the first chapter is going to be kitab bab al-miyah. The chapter regarding water. And really it's usually referenced in the books of fiqh as al-miyah.
[Arabic recitation]
It is jam' al-jins. So it is actually plural. The different types of water, right? Because water is different types. Which we will get into in sha Allah. So, in order for me to purify something from filth, in order for me to purify myself from sexual impurity or hadath al-asghar, right? I need water. So, what is the essential default state of water? What is the default state of water?
[Silence]
He says, "The general principle, general rule, the default state of any water that comes down from above or comes out of the earth naturally, that it is considered to be purifying." Notice the wording. It's not just pure, it's pure in itself and it purifies else. Okay? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he says in verse number 48 of Surat al-Furqan, and we have sent down from above a purifying water. Allah uses this word tahura, purifying water. Meaning it's pure in itself, and it can be used to purify all else. Now, that's the only evidence he mentions. Remember the ruling that he gave us, the author, the ruling he gave us was that any water that comes down from above, or any water that springs from the earth is pure and purifying. But then he mentions evidence for one of those. And that is the statement of Allah that we have sent down from above purifying water. So, does this here contain the evidence for what springs from the earth? No. Where did the water that's inside the earth come from? There we go, right? No matter how long it's been in there, it's all originated from from above.
[Silence]
He says, "And another evidence for this ruling is the statement of the prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam when asked about the purity of the water of the sea, sea water." So, the story behind this narration is there were a few companions and very likely this happened the animal food in the year of visitors, right? Which was the last year of the prophet Sallallahu alayhi wasallam's life in Medina. People were coming from all over the known world to meet Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wasallam to pledge their allegiance. And so, a group of companions asked him that sometimes that we are fishermen by trade. They're either fishermen or merchants, but they spent most of their time on the sea. They said, "We we carry water with us. But the thing is is that if we use this water to make wudu, we are thirsty. If we use this water to make wudu, we will subject ourselves to thirst cuz, you know, we only have a finite amount of water. very limited amount of water. So, is it permissible for us to make wudu using the sea's water?" And the prophet Sallallahu alayhi wasallam, he gave them extra. He didn't just answer their question. He could have said, "Yes." But knowing that if this is something that they are unclear about, then the second ruling he gives them, they're most certainly going to be unclear about. So, he answers them. He says, "Huwa al-bahru at-tahuru ma'uhu. Ya'ni ma'ul bahri tahirun fi nafsihi mutahhirun li ghayrihi. Al-hillu.
[Arabic recitation]
Is pure in itself and purifying. And it's dead is pure and permissible. It's dead is pure and permissible. so, these folks were unclear if sea water was going to be acceptable to make wudu. Now, if they read in the Quran that Allah has prohibited dead animals, then they're definitely not going to imagine that the the ocean or the sea that the dead carcasses or the dead fish in the sea are going to be permissible. And when a person is a fisherman, they use nets, perhaps they cast nets, or perhaps crab they catch crabs or lobster. crabs and lobster, you use cages that you drop into the sea bed. And you pull them up later. You come back day later, 5 days later, a week later. It's a trap. And so, when you go out there and you pull these baskets out or you pull these nets out, invariably, part of your catch is going to be what? Dead. They've already died. Right? Fish that are already dead, crab that crabs that are already dead, etc. So, this is not to be discarded because this is as well pure. So, the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam tells them that the sea water, the sea's water is purifying and its dead is permissible. Permissible meaning permissible to eat. From this narration, the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam tells us and the companions understood that anything that resides in the ocean or the sea, no matter how it looks or no matter its state of life, when caught is permissible to eat. And I say the companions understood this because even if we find the dead fish on land, it is still permissible to eat. There's a a story in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim where the companions radiyallahu anhum were sent by the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam to a battle. And they had such little resources. This was in the early days of Medina. To the point that the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam gave the entire the entire militia, if you will, a one basket of dates. Now, it's not a little basket. It's a big basket. But they had to ration these dates. The companions radiyallahu anhum later narrated that our ration was one date per man per day. And we were so hungry that when we would finish the date, one of the tabi'in that was listening to this companion narrate this, he said, "How did you survive?" He said, "When we finished eating the date, the meat of the date, we would continue to march and suck on the pit of the dates until it was more or less dissolved, and then we would drink and and follow that with water. That was their ration." And their leader that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam had appointed was Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah, radi.
[Arabic recitation]
Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah is one of is one of what? one of the 10 that were earmarked for paradise. All right? Ahad al-Ashara. And so, as Allah had decreed it, when they got and skirted up to the shore, shoreline of the Red Sea, they came upon a big, giant, washed up dead whale. It was a giant whale. It was so big that they were crawling inside of it. All right? And so, they had never found a whale before. And so, some of the companions were hesitant on whether or not it was permissible to eat. They later discussed it amongst themselves and came to the conclusion that it is permissible. And so they sat there for a couple of weeks camped out at that whale eating and cooking and eating and cooking and taking the whale's fat and making lotion for their feet. They was a spa for them, right? And they were totally topped up by this whale. they didn't just use the whale oil for for lotion, but they also used it to put on their bows. They also used it to put on the wood to treat the wood. They also used it on their swords to help with rust. They also used the whale oil for lanterns, right? it was just an abundance. It was a goldmine. And so they had almost an assembly line, a supply chain where some of them were inside and they had gone in through one of the eyes and they were just they had buckets that they were filling with this nice fresh whale meat and every day they were eating to their fill. And they took a bunch of this whale meat home with them when they went back to Medina. And so when they arrived back in Medina, the first order of business was to ask of the prophet Sallallahu alayhi wasallam if what they had done was correct. That, you know, this had washed up on on shore and it was already dead and we used our best faculties to you know, examine all the verses and narrations that we know, but we came to the conclusion that it was permissible. Were we correct? And so the prophet told them that they were correct. And he took some of the meat for himself. So I lay with him. The point here is that any animal that resides primarily in the water. Notice the wording, resides primarily in the water. So this will include amphibians that reside primarily in the water. Except frogs. Frogs are the only amphibians which are impermissible to eat. Outside of that it's open season. Any fish any dead or alive is permissible to eat. So in this narration, we have two things that our prophet teaches us. Number one the water of the sea is not only pure, but it is extremely purifying. That's number one. And number two, that anything in the sea even if it is dead is permissible to eat. And this is mentioned in the Quran. You will allow to Allah. Which is probably the verse that the companions had used to come to this conclusion. Allah Subhana Wa Ta'ala says,.
[Silence]
Allah the catch of the sea is permissible for you all and the food of the sea is permissible. And Ibn Abbas says what's meant here by the food of the sea is the dead fish, the dead of the sea. So, that is enough for today. We'll continue tomorrow insha'Allah.