Section One: Taharah -- Chapter Four : Tayamum

Conditions to be Met When Performing Tayamum

1. Tayamum comprises (a) wiping of the forehead and eyebrows, using the inside of the hands and (b) wiping the upper parts of the two hands with the inside of one another.
Like wudhu and ghusl, tayamum is an act of worship which cannot be deemed good enough unless it is done with the niyyah of qurbah. Tayamum is performed using dust or soil as opposed to using water in wudhu and ghusl.
Tayamum is an alternative to wudhu and ghusl where both are not feasible. That is why it is called an emergency taharah.

Water may not be available for the person to perform either wudhu or ghusl for prayer as may the case be, or it could be available, but they cannot use it due to illness or any other reason.
In the event of availability of water and feasibility of using it, tayamum cannot be sanctioned. It therefore follows that wudhu or ghusl becomes obligatory. However, there are two rare exceptional cases:

a. Tayamum could be condoned for performing prayer for the souls of the dead, although such prayer can be said without wudhu or tayamum.

b. If, at the time of going to bed, a person remembered that they were not in a state of taharah, by way of wudhu, some jurists have permitted this alternative route. Yet, we are not so sure that this can be sanctioned.

For tayamum to be a last resort there must exist two reasons:
1. Non-availability of Water
By this we mean the following:

2. a. Non-availability of water within the entire area within the mukallaf’s reach, so long as there is still time to perform prayer. Neither the scarcity of water, nor its characteristics having any bearing on this factor. In such a case, tayamum becomes obligatory.

3. b. Water could be available within the vicinity of the mukallaf. Yet, fetching it may place them in an untenable situation, irrespective of whether the difficulty was material or moral. The mukallaf can in this case resort to tayamum instead of wudhu. However, if they chose to bear such a difficulty arising from fetching the water and got hold of it, they have to take to wudhu that will then be deemed good enough.

4. c. Water could be available within the vicinity of the persons and within their reach. Yet fetching it may pose some external or internal dangers to their life, such as the route to it may be fraught with dangers or the person may not be fit to travel the distance to have access to it, especially there may not be other people whom they can ask for help. The ruling in this case is the same as in the preceding one.

5. d. Water could be available within the persons’ neighborhood and within their reach. Yet having access to it may prove impossible due to the reticence of the owners, or buying it may be very expensive, i.e. beyond the financial ability of the person. The ruling in this case is the same as in (3.b).

6. e. Water could be available within the persons’ neighborhood and within their reach. Yet having access to it may pose some problems, such as commissioning a forbidden act in the course of fetching it. The ruling in this case is the same as in (3.b).

Despite the availability of water, using it for wudhu or ghusl may not be viable for any of the following reasons:
7. a. The short time left for prayer.

9. c. Difficulty arising from the use of water, although not bordering on risking one’s well-being, in that both the water and the weather could be very cold.

10. d. Using the available quantity of water may result in subjecting the person performing wudhu or ghusl to thirst, nuisance, or even it may endanger his health.
The danger posed could extend to the humans and/or other creatures.

11. e. Should there be a najasah on the body or clothes of the mukallaf, and there is an amount of water sufficient for either removing the najasah or performing wudhu, restoring taharah to the najis things takes precedence to using the water in performing wudhu. Tayamum should therefore be applied.

12. In the cases where tayamum is allowed, yet the mukallaf may, against most of the odds already discussed, manage to fetch it and eventually perform wudhu or ghusl, both shall be in order.
However, the only case where wudhu or ghusl is deemed batil is when performing either of them constitutes danger to or damages one’s health.

13. It suffices to rely on the testimony of a trusted person to resolve the question of non-availability of water. It suffices too when a trusted doctor tells of the dangers to one’s health from using water. That said, even apprehension that using water may endanger one’s health would warrant desisting from using it.

14. It is obligatory to use for tayamum the earth or that which is garnered from it, provided that it be tahir and mubah. This could be dust, stone, sand, or clay. Indeed, tayamum shall be deemed good enough if its done with mortar, stone, cement, tiles, and marble so long as their original material is extracted from the ground. Tayamum shall also be in order even if it is performed by hitting the hands against a wall, so long as the wall is made, even in part, with ordinary building material.

15. It is not essential that the material used for tayamum leaves any trace on the parts of the body tayamum has been performed on. For example, performing tayamum with a polished clear stone is as good as performing it with dust.

16. The material used for tayamum should fulfill the following conditions:
a. It should be quantifiable, not grains of dust so minute that they are considered negligible.
b. It should not be mixed with water in such a quantity that it turns into mud.

17. In case, there does not exist a material satisfying the above two conditions, tayamum can be performed with whatever dust or mud. However, if both the materials were available at the same time, dust should take precedence over mud. However, if it is feasible to dry the mud or gather the dust to form a quantifiable amount of soil, tayamum could be performed with the latter materials.

18. Tayamum would not be good enough, if it was performed with that which cannot be called of the earth matter; this may include gold, iron, steel, copper, lead, and the like, or precious stones, such as agate, turquoise, pearl, and coral, or minerals, such as salt, antimony, and ash. Prohibitive too is the use of all that which is used for food and clothing. Furthermore, it is not permissible to use wood, or glazed building materials for tayamum.

19. Should the earthly material be found mixed with non-earthly one, such as salt, performing tayamum using such a blend cannot be deemed good enough, unless the amount of the non-earthly material is so negligible that you cannot call the material other than earthly.

20. Those who may not be able to get hold of any material to perform tayamum are allowed to say prayer without it. Should they, thereafter, be in a position to use either water or earth they should do so and repeat each and every prayer previously performed without wudhu or tayamum.If the situation persisted until the time for prayer was up, the person concerned does not have to perform prayer by way of qadha’, even though the latter should, as a matter of ihtiyat, be advocated.

21. The person performing tayamum should hit with the inside of both the hands the source material of tayamum; this has to be done in one blow. With both the hands, the forehead, including the temples, should be wiped. The boundaries of this area should be the hairline to the upper part of the nose, close to the eyebrow. It is recommended, however, that both the eyebrows are included in the wiping of the forehead.

Then one should wipe the back of the hand from the forearm to the fingertips with the inside of the right hand; the back of the left hand should receive the same treatment, this time with the inside of the right hand.
It is mustahab to shake the hands after hitting the earth and before wiping.
Should there be long hair covering the forehead and temples, it should be lifted to expose both for wiping. As for the hair that may grow in them, it should be wiped.

22. To sum up, the parts of the body that wiping should be applied to, are four: the forehead, both temples, both eyebrows - as a matter of mustahab, and the back of both the hands. The parts of the body with which wiping is carried out are the insides of the hands.
Every part that is wiped should be completely covered by the wiping. However, it is not essential that the part that is doing the wiping should cover the area being wiped. For example, it is sufficient for the forehead to be wiped with parts of both the hands, provided that they are used together and at the same time.

23. What is obligatory of hitting the earth with the inside of the hands is once, irrespective of the purpose of tayamum, i.e. be it instead of wudhu or ghusl. However, it is more meritorious to use two blows, one for the forehead and temples and one for the back of hands, especially when tayamum is performed instead of ghusl.

24s. There may be a case for not performing tayamum fully, i.e. for a valid reason. This could be a person with an amputated hand who has no alternative but to use the other hand only. Also, whatever left of the hand can serve as a full one. Should a person be unable to hit the earth hard with his hands, it suffices that he places it gently on the earth. Should a person be unable to perform tayamum themselves, he can seek the help of another person to do it for them, provided that the helper uses the hands of the disabled person for the task.
Should hitting the earth with the inside of the hands prove problematic, the mukallafs can use the back of their hands. If any of the parts intended for tayamum is covered by a jabirah, the same rules applicable to the person performing wudhu should apply in tayamum, i.e. by wiping over it.

Conditions to be Met When Performing Tayamum

25. a. Tayamum materials should be tahir and mubah as has already been discussed in para.(14). So, it is not possible to a najis earth in performing tayamum, neither can you use an earthly material owned by the others without their consent.

26. b. The niyyah of qurbah should be present for tayamum is an act of worship, i.e.it cannot be deemed good enough without the niyyah.It is not necessary to name in the niyyah whether tayamum is being performed instead of wudhu, ghusl, or an emergency cause for taharah.
However, should there be two breaches of taharah, one requiring wudhu and the other ghusl, there is not enough time to perform either, two tayamums should be performed. There and then, each of which must be performed with that particular purposes, i.e.one instead of wudhu and the other instead of ghusl.

27. c. The steps required for performing tayamum should be followed in an orderly fashion, such as not starting with wiping the hands before the forehead and temples.

29. e. Removing that which could mask the surface of a wiping, or a wiped, part, such as ring.

30. f. Ensuring the interdependence and uninterrupted flow of the actions of tayamum, i.e.those of hitting the earth and wiping.

31. g. The place where the person performing tayamum is present should be mubah, i.e.not magsoub. If the latter was the case, tayamum would be batil. However, if the tayamum material was used on the floor of a usurped place directly, it should be deemed batil. But should the tayamum material be placed in, say, a container on the magsoub place, tayamum should be ruled good enough.

32. There are certain things, which the person performing tayamum can do, by way of mustahab acts.
a. The immediate parts of tayamum should be tahir, i.e. not necessarily the other parts of the body.
b. The starting point of wiping should be from the hairline downward insofar as the forehead is concerned not the other way round. Likewise, wiping of the back of the hands must start from the forearm to the fingertips.
c. Tayamum for prayer has to be embarked on after the time for prayer has set in.

33. When tayamum is performed instead of wudhu, it could be broken, or made obligatory, in the same way wudhu could. Also it can no longer be sustained when wudhu becomes feasible while there is still time for restoring taharah by using water. Should wudhu become feasible for a short while, yet the person concerned does not take the initiative to perform it, he can no longer rely on an existing tayamum, i.e. he has to renew it.

34.When tayamum is performed instead of ghusl, it could be broken, or made obligatory, in the same way ghusl could. Also tayamum can no longer be sustained when ghusl becomes feasible while there is still time for restoring taharah with the use of water. However, the substitute tayamum cannot be rendered null and void by that which calls for wudhu; for example, should a person in a state of janabah perform tayamum and then sleep, or pass urine, his tayamum, for janabah, would remain intact. He should perform wudhu for committing that sort of minor hadath where possible; conversely, tayamum has to be performed instead of wudhu.
The same thing applies to a woman having had tayamum instead of ghusl of haydh.

35. In the unlikelihood of finding water, a person could have tayamum instead of ghusl for touching a dead body; they may need to perform wudhu for, say, having slept or passed urine. One tayamum would suffice, in that they are not required to perform a second tayamum instead of wudhu.

36. If, after having had tayamum, the persons realized that they did not do it as it should be done, they have to repeat it. Should they think that they, say, forgot to wipe the back of the left hand, they should hasten to do so, provided that there is no time lag. Conversely, they should repeat the whole tayamum procedure.

37. All the other cases of doubt concerning tayamum should be treated in the same way as their counterparts in wudhu. These have already been discussed in paras.(94, 96, 97, 100, and 101) of the Chapter on Wudhu.