Tayammum

Stone of Tayammum

Tayammum (Arabic: تيمم‎) is the Islamic act of dry ablution using a purified sand or dust, which may be performed in place of ritual washing (wudu or ghusl) if no clean water is really available or if one is suffering from moisture-induced skin inflammation or scaling.

"O you who believe! When you intend to offer As-Salat (the prayer), wash your faces and your hands (forearms) up to the elbows, rub (by passing wet hands over) your heads, and (wash) your feet up to ankles. If you are in a state of Janaba (i.e. after a sexual discharge), purify yourselves (bathe your whole body). But if you are ill or on a journey, or any of you comes after answering the call of nature, or you have been in contact with women (i.e. sexual intercourse), and you find no water, then perform tayammum with clean earth and rub therewith your faces and hands. Allah does not want to place you in difficulty, but He wants to purify you, and to complete His Favour to you that you may be thankful."

— Qur'an, Sura 5 (Al-Mai'da), ayat 6^[1]

Circumstances when tayammum is necessary

Tayammum may be substituted for wudu or ghusl when access to water is restricted or impractical, namely:^[2]

• When sufficient amounts of water for ritual washing are not available, including when using the available water for wudu or ghusl would leave insufficient water for drinking.
• When obtaining water is hazardous or prohibitively expensive.
• When using water poses a health risk.
• When the water available is impure.

Performing tayammum

Tayammum consists of the following steps:^[2]

1. Finding a piece of ground which is free of najaasah (unclean elements). This could be any natural surface such as rock, sand, or dust.
2. Recite the bismillah.
3. Make niyyah, or intention to make tayammum.
4. Place the hands on the surface of the ground.
5. Lift hands with palms downwards, ensuring that no dust remains, may rub them together.
6. Rub face with hands.
7. Press hands to ground and touch sides of hands together.
8. Rub right arm with left hand, from the fingers to the elbow, and back along the inner arm to the hand. Do the same with the other arm.

The same conditions that invalidate wudu also invalidate tayammum. In addition, a person's tayammum is invalidated as and when water becomes available.

Items on which Tayammum is permitted

• All items which have thick dust on them
• Baked earthen pots (unglazed)
• Clay
• Limestone
• Sand
• Stone
• Taahir (pure) earth
• Walls of mud, stone or brick

Tayammum is very important when water is not near

Items on which Tayammum is not permitted

• All items which burn to ash, rot or melt
• Food Items
• Glass
• Metal
• Wood
• Dash

References

1. Quran 5:6
2. "Conducting Tayammum".

• Lemu, B. A. Islamic Aqidah and Fiqh: A textbook of Islamic Belief and Jurisprudence revised and expanded edition of Tawhid and Fiqh), IQRA' International Educational Foundation, Chicago, 1997.

° http://www.islamicvoice.com/March2006/Fiqh/

External links

• Ritual Purity in the Qur’an, hadith and fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) including dry ablution/tayammum