Why the Prophet's beard matters for your wudu

Welcome everybody thank you for joining us on this installment of is a book about the life and times and ways of the prophet muhammad authored by the great late scholar of islam we had reached in our previous session the chapters regarding the will of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam how he would purify himself in preparation for prayer and we discussed in detail how he used to make this wudu from the beginning to the end we discussed the different utkar what he would say before and what he would say after his wudu and now inshaallah we are going to discuss other things that have to do with but are an addition to what we had discussed previously the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam's beard was described to be very very thick it was a thick beard and we see the descriptions of the companions that his beard would fill his chest which would fill this area of his body likewise the companions have narrated that during the silent prayers they could see the prophet salallahu recitation of the quran by the movement of his beard and that is those who were standing behind him so we understand from this that his beard was very and now how did he used to make wudu and what did he do with this beard he says regarding this he says and he the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam at times would do what is called tahlil to his legia to his beard but it was not something that he did all the time what is it as the scholars of islam have described to us is that he would take a hand a wet hand after he is finished washing his face and his wet hand and wet fingers he would insert into his beard this that's it this is what a tahlil is he would insert it this and that would be all this is something that he did occasionally it's not something that he did every time now the scholars of islam have discussed the issue of the beard for men who are making as we know people have different levels of thickness of their beards and length and so there is a general principle that the scholars of islam have picked up on in their research of the broad texts of the quran this principle states that if the beard is thick enough that you cannot see the skin underneath then it is enough to merely wash the face over that beard meaning that the water doesn't have to reach the skin if the skin is not visible yet if the skin is visible the water must reach the skin right and so if a person has a very thick beard all they would do is just wash their face and due to the fact that the beard has covered up the skin underneath it takes the place of that skin in wudu now this is only for ablution not for bathing in bathing the water must reach the skin of all of the body right but in the beard because we see in instances that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam wipes over his turban and instances he wipes over his socks or his footwear and this is one of those things that the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam would merely wash his face right and sometimes insert his wet hand into the bottom of his beard and other times he would not do so now the ruling is is that if a person has a light beard let's say their beard is very light all over and the skin is visible the water must reach that skin during wudu but if the beard is thick enough that the skin is not visible then it is enough to merely wash a person's face and wash over the the beard the outside of the beard he says.

[Silence]

Would scrub between his fingers during mudu let a person do this during this is something that he would do but it's not something that he would do every time likewise the toes right the toes it was narrated that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would scrub between his toes with his pinky finger right on the left hand that you would scrub between the toes either like this or this with this finger now this is not something that is necessarily to be done every single time what's important is that the water reaches into all of these places so when a person is washing his hands he doesn't necessarily have to scrub but he does have to make sure that the water reaches all of the parts of his hands now this goes for the hands the face the feet any part that he is washing and this is an important point because during the different months of the year a person's skin especially in a place where the climate changes a lot let's say in the bitter cold a person's skin will chafe and dry when a person washes over his skin the cracks in his skin the water will not reach those cracks you have to work it into those cracks of the skin this is something that is necessary scholars of islam differ with regards to scrubbing is scrubbing part of or is it merely enough to pour the water over the limb that is being washed the correct opinion is does not entail scrubbing so for example a person is making and they were to put their wall their foot under the water and the water coming out of the faucet or the shower head completely covers the entirety of his foot or her foot along with between the toes and everything else this is enough a person doesn't have to actually touch his feet to wash them however it is better to spread the water around with your hand especially if you are making wudu with a small amount of water a small amount we mentioned the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would often make will do with about 16 ounces or so in this case a person in order to maximize the area in which he is going to use this water you must use his other hand to spread the water around and so scrubbing between the fingers scrubbing between the toes and the way that we have mentioned is something that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would occasionally do he says and as for if a person is wearing a ring there is a narration that when the prophet sallallahu alaihi because later on in his life he had a ring that was literally a khatum and that is that it said on it muhammadun this is what it said and this is something that he would use when he would send a delegate when he would send a message a written letter to anybody it would be dipped in ink and he would stamp this letter and this is something that was used at that time it's still used i mean we see this in nota republics and so forth has always been used this is something that would be used to indicate that this is an authentic letter that has come from whatever king or whatever delegate that this letter has been coming from and so when he started to call and spread out his tawa to the other farther reaches of the land and reach out to the places that are outside of the arab peninsula such as the roman empire and the persians and so forth he was told and advised by his companions that kings do not accept letters and do not accept messages unless they are officially stamped and notarized and so the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam had this ring designed and it said muhammad.

[Arabic recitation]

And whenever he wished to stamp something he would dip it in ink and stamp whatever letter or message he was sending and so this was originally made out of gold but later on gold was made impermissible for men and remained permissible for women and so the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam and his companions stopped wearing gold and jewelry and he had one made out of silver now how would he make this will do with this ring well if the ring is tight enough obviously the water may not reach underneath the ring and so it is narrated in a weak narration that he would wash his hands and when he would wash his hands he would move the ring around in order to ensure that the water reaches inside of there and it has been authentically collected and reported that the prophet salallahu would wipe over his footwear both as a traveler and as a resident and the time of expiration for wiping over the socks for a person who is a resident is one complete day and night what does that mean well a person makes will do and washes his feet and then after this puts on his socks the person has 24 hours and a complete day and night cycle where he can make wudu and wipe over these socks as a resident if he's not traveling after this time has elapsed a person must take off his footwear and re-wash his feet in full wadu again in order to reset that time limit he says and the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam set the duration of time that a person may wipe over his footwear or her footwear during as a traveler for three days and nights so 72 hours now this is something that many people misunderstand and that is that when it comes to the footwear a person does not start this time until he makes wudu and wipes over them what does that mean let's give an example a person wakes up for fajr he makes wudu complete wudu washes his feet and then he puts on his socks he makes a little fajr he has wudu but then he breaks wudu after making salah so he has will do from fajr to her he makes salah with the same undo as fajr but then he breaks his will between he breaks his wudu between then when asur comes he makes wudu but instead of washing his feet he wipes over his feet the 24 hours begins once he has wiped over meaning now he has 24 hours starting at assa meaning at asur the following day he cannot wipe over his footwear to make wudu he has to take off his socks and wash his feet at also not at fajr and not at all in that example so the time period for wiping over a person's footwear begins at the first wiping over that footwear this is something important to understand because many people would think that it is once a person breaks his will that's not correct nor is it once a person makes will do in the first place and puts the socks on let's give another another example let's say a person makes wudu at fajr puts on his footwear goes to the masjid makes makes salah comes around they still have the same but now they decided they would to put on a different pair of socks they still have the original wudu they take those socks off they put on another pair of socks they make saleeta and then they break their wadu they wipe over their socks at asur we still have the exact same outcome because the person still has his original wudu intact from when he took the socks off from when he put the socks on and took them off that doesn't matter if you have your original wudu in which you washed your feet you could take them off and put them on as many times as you like but once a person breaks his wudu and then takes off the socks now you have to wash your feet again now you have removed the ruling of those socks once you have broken your wall and taken that footwear off likewise another question that comes up often is let's say a person makes wudu puts on his footwear let's say a person breaks his wadu makes wudu wipes over that footwear and then realizes that he should probably take his socks or shoes off to make salah does taking off the footwear invalidate your wudu the correct answer is no it does not so if a person makes will do let's go back to our original example the person wakes up it's fajr he makes wudu he puts on his socks he has the same uldu until he makes salah he breaks his wudu and then he makes wudu and wipes over his socks for asar he makes salah now salat al-makhrib comes around he goes home he has not broken his wudu from he goes into his house he takes off his socks and shoes has he broken his wudu the answer is no a person can only break his wudu with a very limited number of things that a person can do right otherwise their will is not broken and the correct opinion is merely removing the footwear does not break your wudu however the person can't put the footwear back on and wipe over it no the person can have that same wudu from asur all the way until fajr as long as he keeps his wadu but once that will do is broken now he has to make full will wudu including washing his feet again these are issues that come up often and these issues become more and more relevant the colder it gets outside and the more adverse the conditions become and the more of a pain it would be for a person to remove his or her footwear and so this is the time period that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam has set the resident 24 hours and the way that we mentioned the traveler 72 hours in the way that we mentioned now a person may say 72 hours a person would not shower during that time would not we have to understand that bathrooms showers a restroom inside of your house running water inside of your house a water heater these are extreme luxuries that were not allotted to those people who have come before us right we take for granted that a house would have a shower in it have hot water in it would not have would have running water in the house would have a toilet in the house this is something that we take for granted now because it is so prevalent but this is something that is very new to humanity before when a person needed to use the restroom he would have to go far off in the distance far enough to where nobody would see him later on people designed outhouses and even in my time as a young boy growing up we had an outhouse so this is very new things especially in other parts of the world and so during those times when we read narrations of the prophet sallallahu alaihi was mentioning that every believer must at least bathe once a week every friday at least to some of us that may seem horrendous how could a person go for seven days without bathing well when you live in the desert and water is scarce and there are no indoor restrooms and showers and all of these luxuries once a week is actually very progressive and a lot during that time the pr the author now even now proceeds to tell us how he would wipe over his footwear when he would make he says he said and the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam when making wudu would wipe over the tops of his leather socks and now leather socks i don't want you to think and to conjure up the image of these nice little novelty socks that we find in the muslim stores or the islamic stores where it's made out of very fine sheepskin and it's very soft that's not what is meant by a hoof that is not a hoof according to the terminology of the scholars of islam nor the terminology of the prophet and his companions rather a hoof as we mentioned is a hard leather and it is so hard that it maintains its shape if you were to set it up it stays standing on its own just a pair of boots or a pair of shoes this is what a hoof is and the hoof would not be worn with anything else it is an independent footwear right so he would wipe over the tops of it so if he has his feet here his hands would be wet he would just wipe over the tops just that one time right he says wiped over cotton socks this is something that the scholars of islam have differed over and it is a set of narrations that the scholars have differed on whether these narrations are collectively authentic or not ibn a major scholar of hadith and an imam and an expert in the science of hadith here says to us that yes it is authentic that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam had wiped over cotton socks now cotton socks el joe robine or we would say el gel robini cotton socks this is something that you would wear along with footwear you would wear it along with your nail and so he wiped over both and the wiping is as we just mentioned that hands are wet he would just wipe one time once that's it now you see all kinds of things in the in the washrooms in massage see people that wipe all kinds of things some people they i have even seen people that take their hands and they wipe over the entirety of their footwear three times each and so they will take their foot that has a sock on or a shoe and they will wipe the bottom and top and sides and everything three times well you might as well just wash your feet because your socks are soaked at that point this defeats the entire purpose we have to keep in mind that this is a bed there are two types of rulings in islamic law in uz and what this means is that there are rulings which are designated as worship right and then there are rulings which are designated as the greater good or the better thing to do or there are clear wisdoms that we can identify and that when it comes to worship we do not give the mind much wandering space all right i what does that mean i'll even have.

[Silence]

He said if islam if the religion was based on intellect if it was based on merely what seems to be sensible now everything in islam allah's description is his name is al-hakim the all-wise so we understand that any ruling any law any command any prohibition is based on that wisdom of allah but it doesn't mean that we always know and can identify categorically what that wisdom is and so the human mind has limitations our minds have limitations and we cannot hope to understand everything about the rulings of allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala as an individual no scholar knows everything about islam nor does any scholar know everything about the wisdom and the reasoning behind everything that is legislated in islam this is where iman and faith comes in i don't mean this to be misconstrued that there is somehow a a dichotomy or a spectrum between intellect and religion that is not correct rather at no point does sound intellect ever contradict the authentic religion of allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala anytime that that appears to happen it is either a deficiency in the intellect or they are not understanding the ruling of of allah and his messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam properly this is very important this kind of false dichotomy has been set up in our time between religion and reason so you have religion over here which is just kind of arbitrary and unreasonable and there's no it's kind of mindless and it's all based on how you feel in faith and then you've got the scientists over here where it is just pure reason and if i can't see it if i can't smell it if i can't test it then it doesn't exist neither of those two are correct islam as a whole coincides with solid and correct logic if a person finds a seeming disagreement contradiction between reason and religion then there is a problem with the reasoning the logic has not been reached properly this is important but when it comes to things of worship we can try to look for why it is allah legislated this or legislated that but at the end of the day whether we understand it or not we still believe it as being a command of allah subhanahu wa so for example when i stand for salah and i raise my hands at the beginning.

[Arabic recitation]

Well why do i raise my hands what does that signify what is that well the scholars of islam have speculated as to what that is but we cannot say ultimately with any clear categorical authority that this is the reason and this is the only reason why the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would raise his hands at the beginning or during his prayer we can speculate as to the reasoning behind that and that is fine but at the end of the day it all comes back down to in indeed allah does legislate what he chooses and his choices are based on nothing but his wisdom and his knowledge and his mercy subhanahu wata'ala and his justice he does not have any overarching rules of the universe that he somehow has to abide by rather allah described himself in knowing certain terms as he is the doer of whatever he chooses and so a person is not to say well when i wash my feet for wudu i wash my feet therefore if i have some kind of footwear on it would only be appropriate that i wipe over its entirety that is not correct rather the way that a person wipes after they are finished with their ears they go back and wet their hands fresh and they wipe over the tops of their footwear one time just in the way that we have mentioned it doesn't have to be the entirety of the top of the footwear and so this is how he sallallahu and it's also been narrated that the prophet salallahu has wiped over his which is his turban alone and it's also been narrated that he would wipe over the turbine and a portion of his forehead as well now this is when the headwear is something which would be a significant annoyance to remove so the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam's wives when they would make wudu they would wipe over their hijab their right and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam they used to wear the exact way that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam's turbans were before in the beginning stages of his prophethood the turban would be wrapped okay and the tail of the turbine would go under the chin this is called technique and this is how his turban would be worn but then later on the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would wrap his turban and the two ends of the turbine would hang between his shoulder blades and so this turban is not something that you could just take off and put on like a hat it's something that has to be wrapped methodically so if a person each time he wished to make wubu were to remove this turban and re-wrap it you know he would spend a significant amount of his day just wrapping his turban up right and so when he would make when he would reach the point where he would wipe over his head he would either wipe only over the turbine or he would wipe over the front of his forehead and then finish on the turbine in the way that i have just demonstrated this is when a person is needing to do so if they'll cut him it's possible that the only time he would wipe over his turban is when he needed to do so like he's traveling or it's bitterly cold outside or there is some reason why he is not going to take his turban off then and only then he would wipe over it otherwise he would take it off and wipe over his head he says and it is also possible that any time a person has a turban on or some kind of headwear that would be would be annoying to take off and put back on and to wrap and something that is lengthy then a person can wipe over it during mudu whether they need to or not whether they are whether they are in normal conditions or under necessary circumstances likewise for women ibn al-qayim says and this is more apparent it seems to be that it is more likely that the prophet alaihi wasallam wiped over his turban and this is something that is set for all of the muslims that a person may wipe over his head where no matter what his circumstances are he says he says and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would never change the state of his feet in whatever state his feet were in with regards to footwear upon making wudu is how he would make wudu so if his feet were bare and time for salah would come and it's time for he would wash his feet he wouldn't put on something just to wipe over them likewise the opposite if the time for salah would come and he wished to make wudu if he had something on his feet he would not take off what is on his feet to wash over his feet this is as well incorrect the sunnah is however you are when the time for wudu comes that is how you make your wudu you neither take your footwear off to make it more difficult nor do you put your footwear on to make it more easy now does this mean that it would be invalid if a person did so the answer is no it would be valid but it would not be the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam unless there was a need to do so then goes into the issue of tayammum and tayammum is a very important issue because water is so plentiful because alhamdulillah we live in a time when water is abundant and we have running water and every building now it is something that a lot of people maybe have gone most of their life if not all of their life without making to yemen a single time and this is a great blessing from allah but it doesn't mean that we don't learn how to do it it doesn't mean that we don't have that knowledge for the time when we need to use it and employ it this is something we will speak about in our following lecture insha allah thank you for watching with so.