Starting Fresh: The Book of Purification

Could you grab that from who's having he's going to give you something. Thank you, sir.

[Silence]

Today is an exciting day. Because we have completed the entirety of the book of fasting. Thank you, sir. You're a gentleman. And a scholar of home sales. Today is an exciting day because alhamdulillah we have completed the book of fasting in its entirety from the book of al-wajeez. And now we are going back to the very beginning of the book. The book of purification from al-wajeez. We had kind of a toss-up between al-wajeez or Riyadh as-Saliheen to continue on that. And an overwhelming majority chose al-wajeez. So, let's give it a shot inshallah. And go from there be the light of Allah. So, we are beginning again at the very start of the book. Usually, the books of fiqh they especially the later books of fiqh, the books of fiqh that were written by latter-day scholars, say after the fifth century. Most of them began to follow the way of al-Bukhari rahimahullah in the way that he organized his book al-Sahih also al-Imam Muslim. And that is that in organizing the the books and chapters of fiqh jurisprudence, they would usually follow the narration of Jibreel alayhissalam. You know, the very well-known narration of Umar yaqulu baynama nahnu julus inda Rasulillah dakhala alayna rajulun shadidu bayadi al-thiyabi shadidu sawadi al-sha'ri qala akhbirni an al-Islami qala al-Islamu ila akhir al-hadithi. Where Umar mentioned that a man entered the masjid that had very black hair, very white clothing, and he proceeded to ask the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam a series of questions starting with tell me, inform me about the intricacies of al-Islam. And so he said, Islam is to testify that none is rightfully worshiped but Allah and that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah, to establish salah, to give zakah, to fast the month of Ramadan, and to make hajj pilgrimage to the house of Allah al-Haram if you are able to do so. This narration is usually the order that the scholars will compile their books. When we look back even as far as the book of Ash-Shafi'i, rahimahullah, which is known as Al-. He has a book He has two madhhabs. Shafi'i has two madhhabs. He has the old and new. First, he went to Al-Iraq and he spent his younger years there. And then he moved to Egypt. And the opinions that he adopted in Iraq are referred to as his old madhhab. And the new madhhab were the opinions that he refined later in Egypt. Now, when those works are all compiled, that book is called Al-. Right? Which literally translates to the reference or the mother book. The the the the reference of fiqh. And it's the first book of fiqh in that way that we have in in all of Islam in that way. This even predates Al-Bukhari, rahimahullah. Shafi'i passed away in the year 204. And so, we see that even he followed that narration roughly in organizing his book. Al-Imam Malik, rahimahullah, Shafi'i's teacher before him, organized his book Al-Muwatta based on that narration. However, it's a little bit different. Usually, the scholars will begin with the book of purification. So, if salah is the first book that they begin with, then purification is the first of that subject. Others began with the chapters regarding the times of prayer. Right? Cuz salah isn't really obligatory until the time comes in. And that's how Al-Imam Malik Rahimahullah organized his book. But, they all pretty much followed the way of the scholars of Hadith in organizing their books. And that is based on this narration, the narration of Jibril alayhis salaam. They begin with the pillars of Islam. And then they follow that up with the rem- remaining books and chapters regarding worship. And then after that, they branch off into al-mu'amalat and so forth. And this book is no different. As we've mentioned before, this book al-Wajiz, it is really a summary, an abridgement of the book Fiqh us-Sunnah authored by Sayyid Sabiq Rahimahullah. He was a very renowned Azhari scholar. And he wrote his book Fiqh us-Sunnah roughly, I think, somewhere in the 1950s or '60s, somewhere in there. He continued to refine it. And there was kind of a an explosion of writing going on in Al-Azhar. And there was almost a knowledge revolution during that era in in modern history. And so, he wrote his book Fiqh us-Sunnah as a very summarized book. It's in three volumes. But, one of the reasons that it caught on so much and that it is so ubiquitous, so well well so widespread, even though the books of fiqh, if we were to enumerate all of the books of fiqh ever written in the history of Islam, I mean, we're talking about hundreds of thousands of books have been written on the subject of fiqh. however, his book became very, very popular, very, very commonplace, very, very well known. And one of the reasons is that his book relied so heavily on referencing the evidences from the Quran and the Sunnah. So, he would not just mention one particular madhhab, he would not just mention the conclusion, but he would mention the evidence for that conclusion from the Quran, from the Sunnah, and he draws from all of the major madhahib and the major books of fiqh. And it became a very good beginner's book into the field of jurisprudence. If a person wants to get into the subject of fiqh in Islam and they want to have a good foundation to start on, Fiqh us-Sunnah would be a very good choice for that. And so, al-Wajiz is a summary of that book, more or less, in that the author removed many of the arguments, many of the peripheral issues, many and he kept the evidences from the Quran and Sunnah. He'll mention the issue, then he'll mention the evidence from the Quran and Sunnah. A A of times when we go to learn something fit, people become very very unsure. They become very dubious with respect to fit. Why? They say, "Well, there's so many madhahib and there's many different schools of thought and what madhab is this and what madhab is that?" And this really is an issue of conceptualizing fit to be this monstrosity of a field in which everything is a difference of opinion. Nothing is agreed upon. Everything is a difference of opinion. Nobody really knows what's going on. It couldn't be further from the truth. The majority of Islam and the majority of Islamic law is agreed upon. Where Where is the difference of opinion? The difference of opinion comes to play with with respect to with respect to details. Right? With respect to details. For instance, all of the madhahib hold the opinion or it's not an opinion or upon the understanding that purifying a person's clothing from any filth is a prerequisite to salah. It's part of the rulings of salah. If there is some najasa on a person's clothing, that this would more or less invalidate a person's salah until they purify it. Okay. Where is the difference of opinion? The difference of opinion comes to play with to the details. How much of that is acceptable? How much of that is overlooked? what about if a person only realizes that they had najasa on their clothing after they've already completed salah? Right? Or what is the bare minimum? What is the maximum? These are the things that they differ upon, but the issue itself is agreed upon. And that is what this book mainly focuses on. Doesn't focus on the details as much. It focuses on the direct commands that come from the Quran in its most obvious of interpretations and the Sunnah and the most authentic and obvious of narrations. Beginning with the book of purification. The book of purification. He said, "Purification in the Arabic language is that a person purify himself or purify something from any type of hadath. Hadath is something that is a form of a form of imperfection. Something that would make a person undesirable or imperfect. And in the language and terminology of the scholars of fiqh, jurisprudence, at-taharah, purification, is that a person enter a state where salah is permissible. Or that a person remove any deemed filth from their body or clothing or place of salah. So, this is what this book here is going to explore. Number one, raf' al-hadath. Raf' al-hadath, which is that a person enter a state of spiritual purity that would make salah permissible. So, is it permissible to make salah without wudu? What's the answer? No. So, it's haram, right? Is it haram to pray without wudu? Huh? It is haram, right? Okay, so this is what we call a hadath. Right? This state of impermissibility, this is referred to as a hadath. And taharah, which when we say wudu is a condition of salah, that's correct and incorrect at the same time. Why? Because it's not as precise. Wudu is a condition of salah for a person who has access to water, for a person who can use water, for a person who's not in a state of major hadath, right? Meaning that he needs to bathe, is in a state of minor hadath, then yes, wudu. However, if a person is in a state of major hadath, he could make wudu all day, and he still wouldn't be able to pray. He has to bathe. And if a person has no access to water, then for him, wudu is not a condition of salah, rather it is tayammum, right? So, more specifically, raf' al-hadath is a condition of salah. So, this book is going to deal with two things. The book of purification. It's going to do deal with two things. Number one, it's going to deal with how a person goes about entering that state of purification that makes salah halal for them. That makes salah permissible for them. The second thing this book is going to deal with is purifying the clothing, purifying the body, purifying the place of salah from an-najasat, from that which is deemed to be filthy. Because not everything is filthy. Some things are unclean, but they're not necessarily filthy, right? So, for instance, filth an-najasah is let's say for instance, urine is a type of najasah. This is a type of filth. It is filthy and it's unclean. However, say for instance, snot, snot from a person's nose, right? Is that a type of filth? No, it's unclean. But it's not a type of filth. Filth means that you cannot pray with this on your person, on your body. Right? And we will get into the distinctions of those things in sha Allah So, it's very important to understand these these two things are what this book is going to deal with. Number one, Rafa al-Hadath. And that is that a person you know, that a person enter into a state of spiritual purity to be able to pray. To be able to make tawaf around the Kaaba. To be able to handle the mushaf. You have to have purity for that. Spiritual purity. Either by wudu or ghusl or tayammum. And number two, this book is going to deal This book, meaning the book of purification, is going to deal with listing the various types of filth the various types of najasat and how a person goes about purifying those things and what things need to be purified in order for a person's prayer to be acceptable. And we will begin that in sha Allah.

[Arabic recitation]