Your Guide to Learning Mālikī Fiqh
Pt. 2: On Purification
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This is Part 2 on Purification. The class is based on the text, al-Muhadhdhab min al-Fiqh al-Mālikī wa Adillatuhu (The Refined Compilation of Mālikī Fiqh and Its Evidences) by al-Imām Muḥammad Sukḥāl al-Majjājī, may Allāh preserve him, with the translation performed myself.
Kitāb al-Ṭahārah – The Book of Purification
The Chapter Pertaining to Various Types of Water
If something mixes with the water, other than what has been previously mentioned, resulting in changes to its original state in terms of color, or taste, or smell, it loses its purifying quality and takes the same ruling as altered water.
This is substantiated by the saying of the Prophet ﷺ: “Water is not made impure by anything, except that which changes its smell, taste, or color,” a ḥadīth which has been collected by Ibn Mājah on the authority of Usāmah bin al-Bāhī. Despite this being a weak ḥadīth there is an ijmāʿ (consensus of the scholars) on the validity of its meaning, and therefore use, in the ḥukm (ruling) which the ḥadīth points to. This ḥadīth is the naṣṣ (textual source) which serves as a dalīl (evidence) against differentiating between water coming into contact with impurity (where it does not become impure) and impurity coming into contact with water, where it is said to become impure if the amount of water is small meaning less than two qullahs or approximately 45-50 gallons.
[The water] remains pure if the substance altering it is pure, such as milk, and it becomes impure if the substance altering it is impure, such as urine.
Practical Implication in Modern Terms:
A qullah refers to a jar large enough for an average person to carry when filled with water.
The Shafi’i school estimated two qullahs to be equivalent to approximately 160 liters of water or 43 gallons.
It is makrūh (disliked) to purify oneself with water that has been used in a previous act of purification, such as wuḍū’ (ablution) or ghusl (full-body washing), or with a small amount of water into which impurity has fallen but has not altered it. It is also disliked to use water heated by the sun, or water that a dog has lapped from if the amount is small by custom. Bathing in stagnant water is also considered disliked.
You can download the notes with Arabic here.