Al-Wudu' Verse
| Verse's Information | |
|---|---|
| Name | Al-Wudu' Verse |
| Sura | Qur'an 5 |
| Verse | 6 |
| Juz' | 6 |
| Content Information | |
| Place of Revelation | Medina |
| Topic | Fiqhi |
| About | Explaining the way of making wudu' |
Al-Wuḍuʾ Verse (Arabic:آية الوضوء) is the 6th verse of Qur'an 5 (Sura al-Ma'ida) and the only verse in the Qur'an explaining the way of making wudu'. There are disagreement between Shi'a jurists and Sunnis about the meaning of three words in this verse: "Ila" (to), "Arjulakum" (your feet) and "Ka'bayn" (protruding bone). By virtue of this verse, Shi'a wash their hands downward and wipe a portion of the upper part of feet. In contrast, Sunnis do not believe that washing downward is necessary and most of them wash their feet. Other than this verse there are 560 hadiths in Shi'a sources about wudu' and its details.
Text of the Verse
Direction of Washing Hands
Shi'a jurists believe that washing hands from elbows to the tips of the fingers is obligatory for making wudu'. However, Sunnis unanimously say that one is free whether to wash the hands downward or upward, but washing them upward (from the fingers to elbows) is recommended.[1] This disagreement originates from the meaning of the word "Ilā" (إِلَی , to) in this verse and also hadiths about wudu'.
According to Shi'a, the word "Ila" in this verse only explains the limit of washing not the direction of it, because in Arabic the word "Yad", meaning hand, has three usages:
- From the tips of the fingers to the wrist.
- From the tips of the fingers to the elbow.
- From the tips of the fingers to the shoulder.
"Ilā" (to) in this verse only indicates that the second usage is meant. Even in ordinary usage when someone tells a house painter "paint this wall to this point" it does not mean toward this point and in this direction, rather it only indicates the limit.
Moreover, Shi'a jurists have provided evidence form hadiths about Prophet Muhammad (s)—that he washed his hand downward[2]—and also hadiths from the Infallible Imams (a) saying that the hands must be washed downward.[3]
Washing or Wiping the Feet
By virtue of this verse and hadiths from Ahl al-Bayt (a), Shi'a believe that one should wipe on the upper part of feet while making wudu'.[4] In contrast, Sunni believe that they must be washed. It seems that the origin of this disagreement is the way of reading the letter "لام" (L) in "Arjulakum."
There are two different qirā'as (methods of reading) for this word.
Common qirā'a: In the most prevalent qira'a, it is read "arjulakum" (the vowel "æ" after "l"). According to Arabic grammar by reading in this way the verse can convey two meanings:
- Wash your face and hand and wipe a part of your heads and your feet.
- Wash your face and your hands and wipe a part of your heads and wash your feet.
In addition to hadiths and tradition which support the first one, the second is against the eloquence of the Qur'an (as it appears even in the translation).
Some Sunni scholars claimed that in this verse washing includes wiping, i.e. washing is wiping with more water, but wiping does not include washing. So, if someone washes his feet, he has done his duty in wudu', but if he just wipes and in reality he was required to wash his feet, that does not suffice and his wudu' is void.[5]
Answering this claim, it is said that washing and wiping are two different actions and none of them is applied to the other, i.e. no washing is wiping and no wiping is washing. Commonly, if someone washes his feet, people do not say that he has wiped them. Above all, if this claim was correct, washing the head should have sufficed instead of wiping, while even Sunnis reject this.[6]
Rashid Rida, the Sunni scholar, said: "intellectually, washing is more suitable, as it is more hygienic, so it is better for standing before the Lord of the lords".[7]
However, because wudu' is an act of worship, it must be performed in the way God and His Apostle (s) defined; not according to the taste or personal opinion of others. If the feet are dirty, one can wash them before or after wudu'; changing the way of making wudu' is not the solution.[8]
Uncommon qirā'a: in this qira'a (reading) the word is recited "arjulikum", which makes the verse to have only one meaning: "wipe a part of your head and your feet". However, some Sunnis said that even in this qira'a the feet must be washed and the verb "wipe" is used to persuade people to consume less water for washing their feet.[9]
Meaning of Ka'bayn
Ka'bayn is the dual form (tathniya) of Ka'b. Three meanings are mentioned for this word:
- The protruding bone on foot
- The joint of tibia and foot (ankle)
- The bone of malleolus which is protruded on each side of ankle.[10]
Some Shi'a scholar has chosen the first meaning and some the second. However, the third meaning is not correct here, because if it was suitable, the word should have been used in plural form not in dual form.[11]
Notes
- ↑ Mughnīya, al-Fiqh ʿalā al-madhāhib al-khamsa, p. 80; Jazīrī, al-Fiqh ʿalā al-madhāhib al-arbaʿa, vol. 1, p. 65.
- ↑ Ḥurr al-ʿĀmilī, Wasāʾil al-Shīʿa, vol. 1, p. 387.
- ↑ Ḥurr al-ʿĀmilī, Wasāʾil al-Shīʿa, vol. 1, p. 387.
- ↑ Ḥurr al-ʿĀmilī, Wasāʾil al-Shīʿa, vol. 1, p. 418; Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān, vol. 5, p. 387.
- ↑ Fakhr al-Rāzī, Mafātīḥ al- ghayb, vol. 11, p. 306; Rashīd Riḍā, Tafsīr al-manār, p. 233.
- ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān, vol. 5, p. 363.
- ↑ Rashīd Riḍā, Tafsīr al-manār, p. 331.
- ↑ Ṭūsī, Tahdhīb al-aḥkām, vol. 1, p. 62, hadith. 20.
- ↑ Zamakhsharī, al-Kashshāf, vol. 1, p. 611.
- ↑ Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, vol. 4, p. 288; Bustānī, Farhang-i abjadī-yi ʿarabī-fārsī, p. 730.
- ↑ Jurjānī, Tafsīr shāhī, vol. 1, p. 31; Ḥamza b. ʿAli, Ghunyat al-nuzuʿ ilā ʿilmay al-usūl wa al-furuʿ, p. 58.
References
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- Bustānī, Fuʾād Afrām and Riḍā Mahyār. Farhang-i abjadī-yi ʿarabī-fārsī. Tehran: 1375 Sh.
- Fakhr al-Rāzī, Muḥammad b. al-ʿUmar al-. Mafātīḥ al-ghayb. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1420 AH.
- Ḥamza b. ʿAli, Ibn Zuhra Ḥalabī. Ghunyat al-nuzuʿ ilā ʿilmay al-usūl wa al-furuʿ. Qom: Muʾassisa Imām Ṣādiq(a), 1417 AH.
- Ḥurr al-ʿĀmilī, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-. Wasāʾil al-Shīʿa. Qom: Muʾassisat Āl al-Bayt, 1409 AH.
- Jawādī Āmulī, ʿAbd Allāh. Tafsīr-i tasnīm. Edited by ʿAlī Islāmī. 2nd edition. Qom: Markaz-i Nashr-i Asrāʾ, 1387 Sh.
- Jazīrī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. Al-Fiqh ʿalā al-madhāhib al-arbaʿa wa madhhab Ahl al-Bayt (a). Beirut: Dār al-Thaqalayn, 1419 AH.
- Jurjānī, Sayyid Amīr Abu l-Fatḥ Ḥusaynī. Tafsīr shāhī. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Nawīd, 1404 AH.
- Kulaynī, Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb al-. Al-Kāfī. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, 1407 AH.
- Makārim Shīrāzī, Nāṣir. Tafsīr-i nimūna. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, 1374 Sh.
- Mufīd, Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-. Al-Muqniʿa. Qom: Kungira-yi Shaykh al-Mufīd, 1413 AH.
- Mughnīya, Muḥammad Jawād al-. Al-Fiqh ʿalā al-madhāhib al-khamsa. Beirut: Dār al-Tīyār al-Jadīd, 1421 AH.
- Qurashī Bunābī, ʿAlī Akbar. Qāmūs-i Qurān. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyya, 1371 Sh.
- Rashīd Riḍā, Muḥammad. Tafsīr al-manār. Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, [n.d].
- Sayyid Murtaḍā, ʿAlī b. Ḥusayn. Al-Intiṣār fī infirādāt al-imāmīyya. 1st edition. Qom: Intishārāt-i Islāmī, 1415 AH.
- Shawkānī, Muḥammad. Fatḥ al-qadīr. Damascus: Dār Ibn Kathīr and Dār al-Kalim al-Ṭayyib, 1414 AH.
- Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Mūhammad Ḥusayn. Al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān. Translated to Farsi by Mūsawī Hamidānī. 5th edition. Qom: Daftar-i Intishārāt-i Islāmī, 1374 Sh.
- Ṭūsī, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-. Tahdhīb al-aḥkām. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyya, 1407 AH.
- Zamakhsharī, Maḥmūd b. ʿUmar al-. Al-Kashshāf ʿan ḥaqāʾiq ghawāmiḍ al-tanzīl. Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1407 AH.