Lesson 2 of Matn al-‘Ashmawiyyah – Purification and Things Which Nullify Wudu

This is a course taught by Ustadh Abdus Shakur Brooks covering the entire text. This text covers the essentials of purification, prayer and fasting according to the Mālikī school.

You can download an MP3 of this lesson here: Lesson 2 – Purification and Things Which Nullify Wudu

You can download a PDF of the english text here: Matn al-Ashmawiyyah

Lesson Notes:

Know, and may Allah grant you success, that things which nullify wudu are of two types:

1. Ahdaath² (Impurities)
2. Asbaab ahdaath³ (Things which lead or may cause impurities).

Ahdaath (Impurities) are five:

Three of them are from the front (genitals):

1. Madhyu (Prostatic fluid)⁴
2. Wadyu (Genital discharge)⁵
3. Bawl (Urine)

And two of them are from the behind:

1. Ghaa’it (excrement)
2. Riyh (passing wind)

Asbaab ahdaath (those things which may cause or lead to impurities):

1. Sleep is of four types.

 Long and heavy sleep nullifies wudu,
 Short and heavy sleep also nullifies wudu,
 Short and light sleep does not nullify wudu
 Long and light sleep, it is merely recommended to refresh wudu.

2. Fainting.
3. Vanishing of intellect due to insanity.
4. Drunkenness.
5. Apostasy.
6. Doubt, whether or not one has wudu.
7. Touching the penis with the palm of the hand, the insides or the sides of the fingers, even if by one finger⁶.

As for touching (the opposite sex)⁷ it is of four types:

1. If pleasure is intended and thus found, wudu is nullified
2. If pleasure is found but was not intended, wudu is nullified,
3. If pleasure is intended but not found, wudu is nullified
4. If pleasure is not intended and indeed not found, in this case, wudu is not nullified.

It does not nullify wudu:

1. To touch the (your) buttocks
2. To touch the (your) testicles
3. To touch the genitals of little kids when cleaning/changing them.
4. To vomit
5. To eat camel meat
6. Cupping and bleeding (as a therapeutic measure)
7. To laugh in salaah.
8. For a woman to touch her private part but it is said if she fondles she needs to make wudu.

And Allah knows best.

Footnotes:

1 Wudu is one of the conditions for prayer; there is no prayer without wudu (under normal circumstances). This is the ritual washing of specific limbs as commanded by Allah in Surah Ma’idah:6

“Oh you, who have believed, when you rise to [perform] prayer, wash your faces and your forearmsto the elbows and wipe over your heads and (wash) your feet to the ankles…”

2 Ahdaath (plural for hadath) are things which are absolutely impure in themselves. They immediately nullify wudu of a person from whom they emanate.
3 Asbaab ahdaath are not impurities in themselves but things which may cause or may lead to impurity.
4 Prostatic fluid is that liquid which appears when a person is aroused due to intimacy between the spouses or thoughts.
5 Wadyu (genital discharge) is a thick and whitish fluid which appears after urine.
6 This applies to a person touching his own penis, not a penis of someone else, as in a case of the doctor and also this refers to direct skin to skin contact. There is no harm if there is a veil or towel in between.
7 The opposite sex intended here, is one from whom pleasure (sexual arousal) can be derived as in a case between wife and husband or anyone whom Islam permits one to marry.