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Shafa (the lip: washing it in purification, the blood money for the lips, and the drinking of water)

الشَّفَة

The shafa is the lining of the mouth. Several rulings attach to it. Washing the outer part of the lips is required in purification, while what is hidden when they close is part of the mouth and is recommended, though the Hanbalis and, for the full bath, the Hanafis require it. Deliberate injury to the lips carries retaliation; by mistake it carries full blood money for both lips, half for each, and in one Hanbali report a third for the upper lip and two thirds for the lower. In the sense of drinking, rules for water as shared use depend on its kind. 1 2 3

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Era
The Prophetic Era
Region
Global / Diaspora
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Health, body and deathWorship and the pillars

Definition

The shafa is the lining of a person's mouth; its plural is shifat and shafawat. The word is used only of people, while animals have other names for their lips. The technical use has two senses: the lip of the mouth, and the drinking of people and animals with the lips, as distinct from watering crops. 1

Washing the lips in purification and the full bath

The outer part of the lips, the part that shows when they close naturally, is part of the face and must be washed in ablution and in the full bath, by consensus, citing the verse of the surah of the Table Spread (6) on washing the faces. What is hidden when the lips close is part of the mouth: the Hanafis, Malikis and Shafi'is do not require washing it in ablution, but recommend it, and the Malikis and Shafi'is do not require it in the full bath either, whereas the Hanafis require washing the mouth and nose in the full bath. The Hanbalis count the mouth and nose as part of the face, so rinsing and snuffing are required in both purifications. 2

Injury to the lips

  • Deliberate injury to the lips carries retaliation by the majority, if its conditions of equality are met.
  • By mistake: cutting off both lips carries the full blood money by consensus, following the report of 'Amr ibn Hazm (may God be pleased with him) that there is blood money for the lips. The majority hold that each lip carries half, like the hands and the feet. One Hanbali report gives a third for the upper lip and two thirds for the lower, since the lower lip is the more useful, moving and keeping the spittle and food in.
  • Blood money is also due for loss of their use, for instance when a blow paralyses them or shrinks them so that they no longer close over the teeth. 2 3

The lip in the sense of drinking

The jurists treat drinking by people and animals with the lips when they set out shared rights in water and rights of use. Al-Mawsili of the Hanafis divides water into four kinds: sea water, which all may use for drinking and for watering land; great rivers and valleys, shared for drinking and watering when no harm comes to the public; the water of a private stream belonging to a village, in which outsiders share only for drinking and watering animals, and for taking water for ablution, washing clothes and cooking; and water stored in a cistern or similar, which no one may take without its owner's leave. 3

People and things also explored

Bone (adhm): purity, use and retaliation· Hadi (the whitish fluid before childbirth: its ruling on ablution and purity)· Hair, wool and fur (their purity, the rules for the dead, washing, adornment and sale)· Hudb (eyelashes: injury and washing in ablution)· Palm of the hand (kaff)· The funeral prayer· The ruling on one who abandons prayer· Ada' (performance of an obligation within its time)

Sources

  1. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.10142
  2. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.10143
  3. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.10144
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Shafa (the lip: washing it in purification, the blood money for the lips, and the drinking of water)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/lips-shafa/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-23.

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Bone (adhm): purity, use and retaliation

In the lexicon, adhm is the bone that has flesh on it, plural 'idham and 'izam. Most jurists hold that a human bone is pure, whether living or dead, of a Muslim or not; that a fish bone stays pure after death; and that the bone of a lawfully slaughtered edible animal is pure and may be used. The bone of carrion, or of a non-edible animal, is impure according to the Malikis, Shafi'is, Hanbalis and Ishaq, and cannot be purified; the Hanafis hold it pure, and 'Umar disliked oiling in ivory. On cleansing after excretion with a bone, the Shafi'is and Hanbalis forbid it; the Hanafis dislike it as forbidden but accept that it suffices; the Malikis forbid a carrion bone and allow a pure bone with disapproval. Most jurists allow retaliation for a bone only at a joint, since equality cannot be achieved elsewhere.