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What You Strike
Tayammum is made with sa'id tayyib, pure earth. It must be clean: earth soiled by impurity cannot be used. Clean dust, such as the dust on a wall or on the ground, is valid with all four schools.
The Prophet ﷺ once returned a greeting only after he had gone to a wall and wiped his face and hands from it. In the hadith of Hudhayfah he said that the soil of the earth was made a purifier for us when we find no water.
Things that are not earth, such as wood, cloth, metal or food, cannot be used, unless there is pure dust on them. Where the schools differ is whether earth without dust, such as clean stone or sand, is enough.
The four schools differ on some details. Show them
Each school's ruling, with the schools that share it named together.
Must it be dust, or is any surface of the earth enough?
The schools are split two and two.
Show each school
- Any pure earth surfaceHanafi · Maliki
- Dust onlyShafi'i · Hanbali
- Hanafi
- Abu Hanifah and Muhammad allowed anything of the earth's kind, such as dust, sand, stone and lime, even with no dust on it, since sa'id is the face of the earth; Abu Yusuf limited it to dust and sand.
- Maliki
- Sa'id is whatever forms the surface of the earth, such as dust, sand, stone and gravel, with dust being the best.
- Shafi'i
- Only pure dust that clings to the hand is valid, or sand with dust in it, because of the hadith of Hudhayfah and the words ﴿فَٱمْسَحُوا۟ بِوُجُوهِكُمْ وَأَيْدِيكُم مِّنْهُ﴾ (“so wipe your faces and hands with some of it”).
- Hanbali
- Tayammum is valid only with pure dust that has dust which clings to the hand, so clean stone or sand without dust is not enough.
- Qur'an 5:6
- Sahih al-Bukhari 337 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Sahih Muslim 369Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Sahih Muslim 522Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Sahih al-Bukhari 335 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
What the hadith grades mean
- Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
- Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
- Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
- Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
- Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
- The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
- Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
- Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.
The positions of the four schools are summarised from their standard references and are pending review by a qualified scholar. Follow the school you were taught, and for your own situation, ask a scholar.
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