7- THE FOUR CAUSES OF MINOR RITUAL IMPURITY
THE FOUR CAUSES OF MINOR RITUAL IMPURITY (HADATH)
Meaning the things that nullify one’s ablution.
Anything that exits from the private parts
The first is anything that exits from the front or rear private parts, whether a substance (such as urine or faeces) (or the mucus that exits from the vagina with or without sexual stimulation, though not a woman’s sexual fluid that appears through orgasm, discussed below) or wind, and whether something usual or something uncommon such as a worm or stones. But not a male’s sperm or female’s sexual fluid (Ar. maniyy, that which exits with orgasmic contractions, whether a man’s or a woman’s, which necessitates the purificatory bath (as it causes major ritual impurity) but does not necessarily nullify ablution, an example of this being someone firmly seated who sleeps and has a wet dream, or someone who looks at something lustfully and sperm or sexual fluid come. Otherwise, if one makes love to one’s spouse, or has an orgasm while lying asleep, ablution is nullified (respectively) by touching the spouse’s skin or by sleep (below).
Loss of intellect through sleep etc.
The second cause of minor ritual impurity is loss of intellect (meaning the loss of the ability to distinguish, whether through insanity, unconsciousness, sleep, or other. Loss of intellect excludes drowsing and daydreaming, which do not nullify ablution. Among the signs of drowsing is that one can hear the words of those present, even if uncomprehendingly).
Sleep while firmly seated on the ground (or any other surface firm enough to prevent a person’s breaking wind while seated on it asleep) does not nullify ablution, whether riding mounted, leaning on something which if removed would cause one to fall, or otherwise seated.
If one sleeps when firmly seated and one’s rear moves from its place before one awakens, this nullifies one’s ablution. But not if:
1. One’s rear moved after or during awakening, or if one is uncertain about whether it happened before awakening or during
2. One’s arm dropped to the ground while one was firmly seated
3. Or when one drowses while not firmly seated, hearing but not comprehending, or if one is uncertain as to whether one drowsed or slept, or uncertain as to whether one slept while firmly seated or not firmly seated.
Contact of man and woman’s skin
The third cause of minor ritual impurity is when any, no matter how little, of the two skins of a man and woman touch (husband and wife, for example) when they are not each other’s un marriageable kin (Ar. mahram,), even if they touch without sexual desire, or unintentionally, and even if with tongue or a non-functional or surplus limb; though touching does not include contact with teeth, nails, hair, or a severed limb.
Ablution is also nullified by touching an aged person or a corpse (of the opposite sex) but not by touching a member of one’s unmarriageable kin, or a child who is younger than the age that usually evokes sexual interest. One’s ablution is not nullified when one is uncertain about:
1. Whether one touched a male or female
2. Whether one touched hair or skin
3. Or whether the person one touched was of one’s unmarriageable kin or not.
Touching human private parts with hand
The fourth cause of minor impurity is touching human private parts with the palm or inner surface of the fingers only (i.e. those parts which touch when the hands are put together palm to palm), whether one touches the private parts:
1. Absentmindedly
2. without sexual desire
3. in the front or rear
4. of a male or female
5. of oneself or another, even if deceased, or a child
-but not if one touches them with one’s fingertips, the skin between the fingers, with the outer edge of the hand, or touches the corresponding parts of an animal.
Ablution is not nullified by vomiting, letting blood, nosebleed, laughing during the prayer, eating camel meat, or other things (not discussed above).
When certain that a minor ritual impurity has occurred, but uncertain whether one subsequently lifted it (with ablution), then one is in a state of minor ritual impurity (because in Sacred Law, a state whose existence one is certain about does not cease through a state whose existence one is uncertain about). When certain that one had ablution, but uncertain that it was subsequently nullified, then one still has ablution.
(Source: The reliance of the traveller, revised edition, Edited and Translated by Nuh Ha Mim Keller)
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