Suhaib Webb – Maliki Fiqh Part Two Ishmawi’s Primer The Nullifiers of Wudu
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Welcome back to our class
on an introduction to Islamic law and its
application, what I called the worshipper's workshop. In
the Quran,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala uses the word worshiper
in three context. Number 1 is the context
of knowledge.
Number 2 is in the context of having
a sound heart.
Talking about saying Ibrahim and after calling him
one of his Ibad. Before that he says,
that he brought a heart, which is Salim,
which is sound.
And then the third context is activism.
Allah says towards the end of the 25th
chapter of the Quran
That the servants of Allah are those who
walk on the earth and and when they
with humility and when they engage with people
who are like haters, they say salam salam.
So three contexts the Quran uses the word
servant and we know the best name of
a person is the slave servant of Allah,
as mentioned by Sayyidina Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
So those are the three things that we
wanna bring,
into concert with one another, knowledge,
sound hearts,
and devotion to worship and activism.
Fiqh, alhamdulillah, is really the study of actions.
Imam Asiyuti
Rahimullah,
he says in his poem on, the text,
he
says,
the is the knowledge of the rulings preceded
pertaining to actions.
Right?
Which are taken from like and we'll talk
about
this more particular,
evidences and.
So firk is really the knowledge of.
What makes an action acceptable to Allah,
which makes an action permissible,
obligatory,
rejected, and so on and so forth. So
when we study fiqh, we're actually enhancing and
creating a more distilled form and focused form
of worship. Masha'Allah.
And, hamdulillah, we are now in a text,
written
by Abdul Bariel Ishmael. We talked about what
is a medhab and what is fair and
all this. And we started this this text
and he says,
This is where we stopped. Right? He says
that those things which nullify
are to
and
is the hadith.
And hadith is.
A hadith is something which nullifies would do
on its on its own.
Right? So it's self nullifying.
For example, using the restroom.
Right?
And the second he said
and
is the plural of sabab.
The word literally actually is a rope that
was tied together because when you tie a
rope together, you use it to accomplish something,
right, to to pull out of a situation.
And now it took on the figurative meaning,
which is a cause
a cause. So he says,
those things which cause
hadith, like sleeping. Because when I sleep, I
may pass gas, I may have some emission
that is going to violate wudu, so sleeping
now becomes a cause
of something that violates wudu.
So ahadeth,
nullify wudu on their own,
are those causes
of the nullifiers.
This is very, very important because the word
is going to
appear a lot. Another word used for is
although there may be a slight difference, but
let's just make it easy for everybody now.
Cause. You find 2 words used for causes,
and.
There are so many axioms that come out
come out of Islamic law
that rely on Sabab.
What is the definition in our epistemological
framework?
A is.
A Sabab is
whose
existence
necessitates
the existence of something else
and whose absence
necessitates the absence of the existence of something
else. Just like I use a rope to
climb up. Right? The suburb is going to
cause
something to happen or the absence of that
suburb, the absence of that cause is gonna
cause that thing not to be present.
A great example of that is the zenith
of the sun.
Right? When the sun reaches its zenith, that
is a cause
that makes an
obligation at that time. The time of Dhuhr
now comes in.
And when the sun reaches the time of
Asr,
its absence, the absence of the cause of
Dhuhr
now necessitates the door is finished.
Those are called Sabab or Asbaab.
It's also very important in fatwa.
If you're going to be answering the questions
of the people and serving the people,
you really wanna be able and as I
teach you this class, I want you to
think about it in 3 ways.
The text,
the evidences,
the and the.
I'm gonna translate that for you in English.
The the
text,
the book of Imam Abdul Bari e Ishmael.
Number 2 is
the evidences
of the med had.
Number 3 is the interpretive lenses and axioms
used
to understand and apply those evidences
that equal
what you see in the text. So you
think about, I hate to say this because
I hate the Lakers for the sake of
Allah, the triangle offense, right? Well, this is
the triangle. I'm running the triangle with you
now. And what you want to do is
you want to divide your notes into the
meaning of the text, evidences,
foundations, and interpretive lenses. Very, very important.
One of the the foundational
axioms that we use in fatwa and answering
questions for people
is
that rulings
appear
and disappear
according to the appearance or absence of their
causes.
Their.
So that means the Mufti,
right, or the one answering questions
has to really understand the people that he
or she is is serving
because the may
change.
Always influx because people are different. So
you'll remember this axiom in
For example, zakah,
if a year has passed and I have
saved enough money and I I I meet
all the conditions and, of zakah, now that
is a cause. That year became a cause
for me to have to pay zakah.
If I don't have that
money, then I can't pay zakah.
So, the sheikh, he says,
He says He said that those things that
violate wudu on their own are 5.
3 are from the front private part area,
and 2 are from the backside, right, from
the *.
He says
and then we talked about this last time
that the first three are,
and, pre seminal fluid,
prosthetic fluid, and
urine.
And we took 3 evidences for each.
What are the evidences? The first
for pre seminal fluid.
1 and these aren't the only evidences for
these, but we wanna take this step by
step. Is the hadith of
who he said, you know, I was
I was a person that experienced a lot
of pre seminal,
*.
And and I
I was
shy because of Sayda Fatima
Radiallahu Anha,
her status with her father, I was, like,
shy to ask him.
So I asked.
Here we see that it's permissible to ask
someone to go and learn on your behalf.
And that's why some says permissible to ask
your friend
to get for you from the shirk.
Because here say
is asking
to do something for him related to knowledge.
The second is permissible for the mostafdi,
the questioner to go to the mufti with
a question from his or her friend.
How many things you can take from these
ahadith? If we if you continue to learn
with me at Swiss,
you'll start to see layers upon
layers upon layers upon layers of texts. It's
very powerful, and that allows you to find
more intersectionality in your life between the text
and what you're experiencing.
I was shy, so I asked Mirkadad to
do it. In Mirkadad, he went,
to the prophet
and he explained to him the situation.
And the prophet
responded,
and he said, you know,
then the person who has this should wash
his or her private parts and then make.
He's saying then make
is an evidence
that preseminal
nullifies wudu.
Also,
is something very interesting that we learn from
this, and I'm not gonna take too much
of your time on these kind of issues,
but some of my students are are very
advanced. So I have to give something for
everybody here. That is permissible for the mufti
to
add or
give additions to the answer.
So here,
especially when there is a need, we have
an axiom that says,
It's
impossible for us to believe that the prophet
would have delayed clarifying something if there is
a need. So here he adds to the
answer.
He not only says that the person should
make wudu, he says also the person should
wash themselves, make
Like when the person asked the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam about
is is, you know, we travel on the
boat, the hadith and the mawta. We're traveling
on the boat and sometimes we don't have
enough water, right, to make wudu.
Like we didn't bring enough water with us,
can we make wudu with the water in
the ocean? He said Right? He said that
the water is pure and halal and it's
it's lahma is halal. Meaning the fish in
the sea are halal. He didn't ask the
prophet about fish in the sea, but he
added to the answer because he, as a
mufti
now functioning as a mufti
felt that this is a need the person
may have. This is called
So also here,
when Miqdad asked the prophet
on behalf of
about this issue, the prophet says,
wash his penis and make wudu.
The art of fatwa is not a sloppy
art.
The second thing was alwadi, which is prosthetic
fluid, and we said there's no evidence in
the Quran and sunnah for this explicitly. This
is what imam ibn,
Hazam,
or Rahimullah called imam ibn Hazam. He called
something that the Sharia didn't address. So here
is where we have chaos analogy.
And just as a person making
a tailor makes a beast book for you,
and he makes sure that the clothes fit,
the one who's making
has to make sure that these two things
fit. What are the two things?
The first is the act that has no
ruling in the Quran and sunnah, in this
case, prosthetic fluid,
with something that is similar to it that
has a ruling in Quran or sunnah, and
this is, for example, urine. So now the
tailor being the faqih is gonna make them
work together. If it's a perfect fit, this
is called
meaning with
its
exact equivalent.
And that
equivalency between them is called.
They have a shared,
a shared
cause.
If the cause is present in both of
them equally, this is called
with its equivalent.
If the cause is not very present in
the thing that has no ruling, so we're
trying to take a ruling and apply it
to it, but that cause isn't very strong
or it's very weak, this is called
It's rejected.
And if the cause is greater
in the act that has no ruling,
more than the act that has a ruling.
This is called
explicit
clear
Right?
Means something is extremely clear. It's it's right
in front of you without any doubt. For
example, as I talked about last time when
Allah
says,
they'll say
to your parents, well, hitting them is worse.
And this is where marijuana comes in. This
is where so many things come in as
a discussion amongst the.
So we have to appreciate now scholarship is
something very important,
and we need to appreciate the methodology of
our deen and the epistemological framework of our
religion
and not be enamored
by others.
So alwadi, the evidence is with urine. And
then the third is, and we said that's
the hadith of Saydna,
Safan ibn Asel
said that the prophet
while they were traveling, he ordered them not
to remove their socks
unless they were in the state of sexual
defilement for
but not
for sleeping, not for urine, and not for
feces. Here we understand
that the prophet was saying those things only
have to have wudu
where sexual defilement has to have
So three evidences for the three things we
touched touched on. If you notice, 2 of
the evidences are coming directly from the text.
Right? So these evidences are called.
Remember this. Imam Atil Masani will talk about
his book in the future in.
He says,
those things which means narrated
from the Quran and
a Quran
hadith
So the first type of evidences are what's
called.
The second type of evidences is where the
mind now is functioning
with great propensity, and that's called.
So the mind is discerning, and that's
is the.
So now you learn something very important, and
I'm teaching you the backside of the website,
if you will. And that is that 2
of the evidences we used, The first is
the evidence to quote of the prophet from
Sayid Nadi through Mehdad.
The third is the hadith of Safwan ibn
A'asal. Those are gonna be what?
Those are gonna
be excuse me, or or Which one? Are
they gonna be evidences that came through narration
or came through
the
usage of a scholar's intellect?
You tell me.
Priess
of prosthetic fluid with urine, is that coming
specifically
from the text,
or is there a mind involved or minds
involved that are discerning this as an evidence
and deriving it as an evidence, istembat?
Is that going to be maqolet
or maqolet?
I'm not gonna tell you. You can tell
me. You can email me and tell me
That takes us now to the second part
of this first chapter when he says with
that 2 of the hadith out of the
5 come from the backside.
And he mentions them,
and that is feces
and passing gas.
Remember, when we talk about passing gas in
a minute, I'm going to teach you one
of the 5
foundational axioms of Islamic law. Put this in
your radar. Put it in your notes right
now.
Five acts, foundational axioms of Islamic law.
One of them is coming out of the
discussion
around passing gas when someone breaks wudu.
First of all,
feces is found in the hadith of Safanib
na Asal, We just mentioned.
Asal was seen. Sorry not Asal. Safani Bneh
Asal. And his narration says, but he told
us we didn't have to remove our socks
for what? For feces,
for sleeping, or for urine.
So that's the evidence for that. The other
evidence is, and there's more than one, I'm
just giving you a little, is the 6th
verse of the 5th chapter of the Quran.
When you come from the height, the height
is actually a place where people used to
go and do number 2
in the desert. The prophet
teaches us and the Quran teaches us how
to use good language. So So it mentions
Isam Makan, right,
use the name of the place,
like Masjid
is the place of sujood. So the
is the place where people, would use the
restroom.
So the Quran says, if you come from
there, you have to make tayamum. If you
don't have water, if you have water, then
you have to make udu.
The last he said is ari, passing gas.
We take this from the hadith of
who said that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa'arihi
wasallam,
he said, if any of you are praying
and
you feel something in your bowels, a bowel
movement,
Did something happen? Did I break wind or
not? You're not sure. You're in a state
of doubt.
Prophet said then do not leave
Salah. And here he used the word masjid
even though he means
He says masjid because to show, like, it's
integral, the place of salah, the best place
of salah is the masjid. So don't leave
the masjid until,
means don't break salah
until
he hears it or he smells it.
A lot of times people have waswas, man,
did I break my wudu or not? I
don't know. So the whole salah, they're, like,
going back and forth in their minds. Man,
I don't know. Did I break wudu?
I don't know what happened. They start freaking
out.
The axiom that we take from this outside
of this being the evidence that that that
passing gas,
breaks will do is a hadith,
is one of the major five axioms of
Islam,
and that is
that certainty cannot be overcome by doubt. Remember
this. Write this down.
Etch it into your brain.
Certainty
cannot be removed with doubt.
So here, I'm in Salah.
I'm not sure
that I break Hudu or not. I am
sure that I had wudu, so that's the
yakin. I'm doubting now in the existence of
wudu.
I'm not allowed to leave
Sala
without being certain.
This is very important, and this axiom is
gonna keep coming and coming and coming and
coming
as we study firk,
As we study filk. I can share with
you now those 5 major axioms of Islamic
law, what are called the
Khamsa,
the 5 foundational axioms.
Imam Asayuti, he mentions them in his poem,
When he says
that the foundations
of
have been, you know, brought out
by the that have been brought out by
our scholars.
And what are
those? He said,
The first is
that doubt
cannot remove certainty.
What is the second?
Harm should be removed. What a beautiful deen,
man.
What a beautiful deen. And the third will
be
and that difficulty brings ease.
We'll talk about what are in the future,
like being sick and traveling, forgetfulness,
all these fall under
And then and then the next
and that the 4th is that custom can
decide things in certain situations.
And some of them, they added a 5th,
and that for everyone is what the intended
meaning actions are by the intention. So what
are the 5 axioms? Write them down
because they're gonna keep coming, coming, coming, coming.
And even in other classes like the 40
hadiths, you're gonna find me talk about them.
Number 1 is
certainty cannot be removed by doubt. That's the
hadith that we took now from Abu Huerra,
don't leave salah unless you're certain.
Number 2 is harm is removed.
Number 3.
That difficulty brings ease.
Number 4.
That custom at certain situations can become a
decider in Islamic law. And then the 5th,
that actions are based on their intentions, on
the reasons behind them. So let's quickly review
what we took and then we'll stop,
our understanding of
and running the triangle offense as you study
it with me.
Islamic law was my specialty. Right? I I
haven't taught Islamic law at SWISS because
I'm scared. I take it very seriously,
and and, I wanna make sure that I
teach it well
and correctly,
and that I help build and furnish things
in your mind that ultimately will make you
autonomous and you can come back and teach
me and offer your critical reflections and constructive
reflections.
So he said this chapter on the akhdeaf,
the things that nullify will do on their
own are 5.
3 from the front, 2 from the back.
And that got us to talk about asbab
al ahedath, which we haven't even gotten to
yet, and the word asbab causes and how
that rulings function according to their causes. Write
that axiom down.
And then that took us into the 5
things that
They cause wudu to be nullified.
Number 1, we said was what?
Was presimilar fluid,
Pre *. Male or female. A strong opinion
is for male or female.
The hadith which
is used for this is the hadith
of.
Number 2, we said, is
prosthetic fluid. What is the evidence for that?
PS
PS PS with urine.
The third is urine. What is the evidence
for that? The hadith of Safwan ibn Asal
with
about traveling with the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. Then that took us to the next
2, which are from the dubur,
not dubar,
dubur, dubur,
and that is
feces and passing gas.
And feces, we said, you know,
first of all, the hadith of Safan ibn
Asal.
The second is the evidence
of the Quran, the 6th verse of the
5th chapter.
You came from the,
then you have to purify yourself before you
pray.
And then
the hadith of that
talks about if you are not certain that
you broke,
that you pass gas while you're praying,
don't leave
until you're certain. And we took the axiom
from that.
And then we took the 5 axioms,
foundational
axioms of Islamic law across MedHEPs, although they
may differ in their application. Is what? Certainty
is not removed by doubt. Number 2, harm
is removed. Number 3, difficulty brings ease. Number
4, a custom can become an interpretive lens
and decider. And number 5 is what actions
are based on the attention?