Tayammum (dry ablution)

Tayammum — linguistically "aiming at" — is, in juristic usage, wiping the face and hands with clean earth in a specified manner, as a substitute for wudu or ghusl when water is unavailable or cannot be used; it is established by Book, Sunna and consensus. ^{1 2}

The Hanafis define it as wiping the face and hands from purifying soil; the Malikis as an earth-based purification comprising wiping face and hands with intention; the Shafi'is as conveying earth to face and hands in place of wudu, ghusl, or a limb thereof under specified conditions; the Hanbalis as wiping face and hands with clean earth in a specified way. ¹

The verse of tayammum was revealed in the affair of A'isha's lost necklace during the expedition of Banu al-Mustaliq: the prayer time came while the Muslims had no water, the verse descended, and Usayd ibn Hudayr (may God be pleased with him) kept saying "How blessed you are, O family of Abu Bakr". ²

Jurists count tayammum among this community's distinguishing privileges, citing Jabir's hadith "I was given five things no one before me was given… the earth was made for me a mosque and a means of purification". ²

The majority held tayammum a concession (rukhsa) for traveller and patient; the Hanbalis and some Shafi'is called it a full duty ('azima), and the Malikis differed on it for the traveller. The dispensation lies both in the purifying agent — earth suffices — and in its scope, confined to half the limbs of wudu. ²

Conditions of obligation include majority, ability to use earth, and a nullifying hadath; conditions of validity include Islam, sanity, cessation of menses and postnatal bleeding, and the presence of clean earth. Its integrals are two: the two strikes, and covering face and hands to the elbows with wiping — with disagreement on whether intention is integral or a condition. ^{3 4}