and divert it to the higher, and they also make the atmosphere in which gatherings of men take place, purer and healthier.
That there is in wudzū’ and the bath a religious purpose besides the hygienic one is shown by the fact that when water is not available, still it is necessary to perform an act which diverts attention from bodily purification to the purity of the soul, which is the aim of prayer. The direction is thus laid down in the Holy Qur’ān: “And if you are sick or on a journey or one of you comes from the privy, or you have had contact with women, and you cannot find water, betake yourselves (tayammamū) to pure earth and wipe your faces and your hands therewith. Allāh desires not to place a burden on you but He wishes to purify you and that He may complete His favour on you, so that you may give thanks” (5:6). Thus when a man is unable to find water, or when the use of water or the taking of a bath is harmful, he is enjoined to avail himself of pure earth, and this use of earth, instead of water, is stated to be a means of purification. Now, though earth may, under certain conditions, be a purifier, it is clear that the wiping of the face and the hands with it does not serve the purpose of bodily purification; yet it is plainly called a means of purification, and therefore it is the purification of the soul which is intended here. By the order of tayammum,23 attention is thus drawn to the inner purpose underlying wudzū’ and the bath. As stated in the Holy Qur’ān, and amplified in Ḥadīth, tayammum consists in striking both hands on pure earth or anything containing pure dust, then blowing off the excess of dust from the hands, and passing the hands over the face and the backs of the two hands, the left over the right and the right over the left24 (Bu. 7:4, 5).
23 The word tayammum is derived from amma meaning he repaired to a thing, and tayammum therefore means, originally, simply betaking oneself to a thing, and since the word is used here in connection with betaking oneself to pure earth, tayammum has come technically to mean this particular practice.
24 There are certain ḥadīth which speak of passing the hands over the parts of the body which are washed in wudzū’, but Bukhārī gives no credit to these reports, and heads the fifth chapter of his book of Tayammum with the express words: “Tayammum is only for wajh (the face) and kaffain (the two hands).”