Fiqh Al-Ibadah 3 — Tayammum — conditions, causes, sunnahs & nullifiers التَّيَمُّم

0 · The opening (context only — not testable fiqh)

The recording opens with about ten minutes of salāms, late joiners, and logistics — who has joined, a link that was shared, which date the last class fell on, and whether the session was being recorded (the Sheikh checked his phone was capturing the audio). None of this is lesson material. The teaching begins where he places the class in the syllabus: there had been coordination problems the previous week (a session clashed with a Hadees class), and "we have come to the end of the tayammum chapter — there is a balance left, and its remainder we finish today. Once tayammum is done, the syllabus moves on to the next lesson."

1 · Recap: the pillars (arkān) of tayammum

Studied in the previous class and recalled here:

2 · The conditions (shurūṭ) of tayammum

Also recapped "briefly":

1. Search for water only after the prayer time has entered — one looks for water (or for earth) after the prayer's time has begun.
2. The earth must be clean, pure earth (ṣaʿīd ṭāhir).
3. Any najāsah (impurity) on the body must be removed first.
4. As the text puts it, "strive to determine the direction of the qiblah" — the qiblah is to be worked out before praying.

3 · The causes (asbāb) that permit tayammum

Asbāb al-tayammum = the reasons that make tayammum allowed:

For these reasons tayammum may be performed. The evidence (dalīl) for it comes later in the class (§7).

4 · The sunnahs of tayammum

The rule: they are the sunnahs of wuḍūʾ, minus two

Most of the sunnahs of wuḍūʾ apply to tayammum too — with the obvious exceptions of rinsing the mouth (maḍmaḍah) and drawing water into the nose (istinshāq): you do not put earth into the mouth or the nose. Everything else carries over — beginning with bismillāh, and so on. The Sheikh repeated the point later: "all of these sunnahs come from wuḍūʾ."

The particular sunnahs named in class

The hadith of ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir — strike once and shake

Read from the book: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir raḍiyallāhu ʿanhu, "It would have been sufficient for you to do like this" — then he struck the ground once with both palms and shook them.

إِنَّمَا كَانَ يَكْفِيكَ أَنْ تَقُولَ بِيَدَيْكَ هَكَذَا

innamā kāna yakfīka an taqūla bi-yadayka hākadhā — al-Bukhārī 347, Muslim 368.

So after striking, one shakes the two hands and the coarse particles fall away — or else blows lightly on them, which likewise removes the excess. Note that we are striking earth, not water.

5 · Tayammum is bound to the prayer time — one tayammum per prayer

• Tayammum is performed only after the prayer's time has begun (this is among the shurūṭ, §2).
• One tayammum for each prayer — for each obligatory (farḍ) prayer, and for each make-up (qaḍāʾ) prayer.

Worked example

There is no water, only earth. You perform tayammum and pray ʿAṣr. Now, for the make-up of Ẓuhr, you must perform a fresh, separate tayammum — that first tayammum does not carry over to the second prayer.

Contrast with wuḍūʾ

Wuḍūʾ is not like this — wuḍūʾ may be performed at any time, and if it is not broken you may pray all five prayers on that one wuḍūʾ. Tayammum cannot: it is a rukhṣah (concession) and a substitute, tied to the time of the prayer it was made for.

6 · Tayammum as a substitute for the obligatory ghusl

• Tayammum stands in not only for wuḍūʾ but for the bath: if you cannot make wuḍūʾ you make tayammum; likewise, if there is no water for the ghusl, tayammum serves for that too. This is why it is such an important rukhṣah and an act of worship (ʿibādah) one must know.
• Where the excuse is one, one tayammum suffices. If it is a specific spot — a wound or a particular part that cannot be washed — you cover that area and wash the rest; you do not need a second, separate tayammum.
• The worked case (a student's question): someone for whom the ghusl is obligatory but who has a wound on his head. He washes the body, covers the part that cannot be washed, and performs tayammum for that covered part.

7 · The evidence (dalīl)

Qurʾān — Sūrat al-Māʾidah 5:6

فَلَمْ تَجِدُوا مَاءً فَتَيَمَّمُوا صَعِيدًا طَيِّبًا فَامْسَحُوا بِوُجُوهِكُمْ وَأَيْدِيكُم مِّنْهُ

"…fa-lam tajidū māʾan fa-tayammamū ṣaʿīdan ṭayyiban fa-msaḥū bi-wujūhikum wa-aydīkum minhu" — "…and you find no water, then betake yourselves to clean earth and wipe your faces and your hands with it" (al-Māʾidah 5:6).

Hadith — ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn raḍiyallāhu ʿanhu

The Prophet ﷺ saw a man keeping apart from the people, not praying, and asked what kept him from praying with them. He said, "I became in a state of janābah and there is no water." He ﷺ said, "Use the clean earth, for it is sufficient for you."

عَلَيْكَ بِالصَّعِيدِ فَإِنَّهُ يَكْفِيكَ

ʿalayka bi-l-ṣaʿīdi fa-innahu yakfīk — al-Bukhārī 344, Muslim 682.

The Sheikh's paraphrase: "Why are you sitting apart saying there is no water? Go — take the clean earth — that is enough for you."

Hadith — ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir

See §4 above (one strike with both palms, then shaking them).

8 · The nullifiers (mubṭilāt) of tayammum

Rule 1 — everything that breaks wuḍūʾ breaks tayammum

The class restated this twice as the important point. The four nullifiers of wuḍūʾ (nawāqiḍ) were recalled:

Rule 2 — the arrival of water ends it

• If water becomes available, you must not perform tayammum; and if you do perform it, that tayammum is invalidated. You must make wuḍūʾ.
• If the water reaches you in the middle of the prayer, it is not necessary to break the prayer — you may complete it.
• If the water arrives after you have given the salām, you need not repeat that prayer. It stands. For the next prayer you must make wuḍūʾ.

Rule 3 — apostasy (riddah)

Apostasy — changing one's religion, leaving Islam — invalidates the tayammum: it becomes void and must be performed again. (The surrounding sentences here were garbled; the ruling itself is clear in the recording.)

9 · The disputed questions (khilāf)

The Sheikh flagged these as the "advanced, or rather disputed" matters at the close of the chapter.

(a) What counts as "earth" — ṣaʿīd?

The translation problem first. Render it "sand" and you mean grains of sand — and sand is not dust. Render it "dust" and you mean only the fine powder, without the soil. So neither is right: the best rendering is "earth" — ordinary soil mixed with dust (Tamil: puḻuti kalanta maṇ).

Practical cases raised: when it rains and the ground is wet, keep some dry dust set aside, as most people do. And in some places (the Gulf was the example) there is only sand and no dust — which is where the Ḥanafī position is reached for.

(b) One strike or two?

The Sheikh called this a big dispute recently.

10 · The one who has neither water nor earth

The closing case: a person on a flight with no dust, or in a confined place he cannot leave — he can make neither wuḍūʾ nor tayammum. (The jurists call this fāqid al-ṭahūrayn — one who lacks both purifying agents.) Other examples given: prison, a locked cell with no way out, no water and no earth at all. The prayer is still obligatory.

The three views

The Sheikh's ruling: the third is the correct one of the three — we pray at the proper time out of respect for the time, doing the tayammum as best we can, and repeat it afterwards.

The Ḥanafī way out, and planning ahead

• One more option in that situation: take the Ḥanafī view for that short period — on the Ḥanafī position any surface will do. You strike it twice, perform your tayammum with that, and pray. On a plane, that means the seat-back in front of you or some such surface.
• Plan ahead when travelling. Those who board around Maghrib at five or six o'clock arrive when it is already ʿIshāʾ time. If there is no way to purify oneself en route, pray before boarding.

What this class did NOT cover

• The remaining ghusl matters were explicitly deferred: "there are also the related matters concerning the ghusl; those come afterwards, once this is finished."
• The janāzah-prayer tayammum question came up in a student exchange that is too fragmentary in the recording to report as a ruling.
• The "face only, no hands" opinion was named but not argued — no evidence or attribution was given for it.
• One aside around the 26-minute mark (apparently an illustrative story) is unrecoverable from the audio, as is a stretch of student question-and-answer around 31–34 minutes and the closing lines.
• With tayammum finished, the ṭahārah track is complete (nifās → ghusl → tayammum) and the syllabus moves to the next chapter.