A questioner (Abdullah) from Indonesia asked, in an audio message: ghusl was obligatory upon him (he was in a state of janabah), and while taking a mug out of the bucket his hand went inside the water. Did the water thereby become impure or wasted? Will he have to take other water and perform ghusl all over again?

Wa 'alaykum as-salam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh, dear Abdullah! May Allah the Exalted reward you abundantly and grant you success in religion and in worldly life.

In your audio you asked about the issue of a hand going into the water of ghusl. The detailed and satisfying Shariah ruling on it, in the light of the Qur'an, the authentic hadiths and the preponderant view of the jurist-hadith scholars, is as follows:

If ghusl is obligatory and, while taking a mug from a bucket or vessel, the hand goes inside the water, the water remains completely pure, it is not wasted, and performing ghusl with that very water is entirely valid and permissible; there is no need to take other water, nor to repeat the ghusl.

(a) A believer's body does not become impure: Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, was in a state of janabah when he met the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, so he slipped away quietly and came back after performing ghusl. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ asked: "Abu Hurayrah! Where were you?" He said: "I was in a state of janabah, and I disliked sitting with you in that state." The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

«سُبْحَانَ اللهِ، إِنَّ الْمُؤْمِنَ لَا يَنْجُسُ»

"Glory be to Allah! Indeed, the believer does not become impure." (Sahih al-Bukhari: 283; Sahih Muslim: 371) Janabah is a ritual (legal) impurity due to which prayer and the like are suspended; a person's body or hand does not thereby become actually dirty or ritually filthy.

(b) The actual practice of the Prophet ﷺ and the Mother of the Believers: The Mother of the Believers, 'A'ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, said:

«كُنْتُ أَغْتَسِلُ أَنَا وَرَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ مِنْ إِنَاءٍ وَاحِدٍ مِنْ قَدَحٍ يُقَالُ لَهُ الْفَرَقُ»

"The Messenger of Allah ﷺ and I used to perform ghusl from a single vessel — a bowl called al-Faraq" (Sahih al-Bukhari: 261); and in the narration of Sahih Muslim:

«كُنْتُ أَغْتَسِلُ أَنَا وَرَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ مِنْ إِنَاءٍ وَاحِدٍ، تَخْتَلِفُ أَيْدِينَا فِيهِ مِنَ الْجَنَابَةِ»

"The Messenger of Allah ﷺ and I used to perform ghusl, in (a state of) janabah, from a single vessel, and our hands would alternate in it." (Sahih Muslim: 321) If, in a state of janabah, a hand entering the water of a vessel made the water impure or unusable, this practice would never have taken place.

(c) Imam al-Bukhari's chapter heading and the practice of the Companions: Imam al-Bukhari, may Allah have mercy on him, set a chapter in his Sahih:

«بَابُ هَلْ يُدْخِلُ الْجُنُبُ يَدَهُ فِي الْإِنَاءِ قَبْلَ أَنْ يَغْسِلَهَا، إِذَا لَمْ يَكُنْ عَلَى يَدِهِ قَذَرٌ غَيْرُ الْجَنَابَةِ»

"Chapter: May the junub put his hand into the vessel before washing it, when there is no filth on his hand other than janabah?" — and under it he mentioned that Ibn 'Umar and al-Bara' ibn 'Azib, may Allah be pleased with them, put their hands into the water of purification without washing them and then performed wudu, and that Ibn 'Umar and Ibn 'Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them, saw no harm in the splashes of the water of ghusl from janabah. Shaykh Ibn 'Uthaymin, may Allah have mercy on him, says in his commentary on this chapter that the correct view is that in the Shariah there is no category called "pure but not purifying" (tahir ghayr mutahhir); water is either purifying (tahur) or impure (najis): if impurity changes one of its attributes it is impure, otherwise it remains tahur — so the water remains upon its purifying quality when the junub puts his hand in it.

(d) Used water is also tahur: As for the notion that used water becomes "musta'mal" and no longer able to purify — the preponderant view, adopted by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him, and supported by Shaykh Ibn Baz and Shaykh Ibn 'Uthaymin, may Allah have mercy on them, is that water used in purification also remains tahur (pure and purifying), so long as no change from impurity occurs in it. The Prophet ﷺ himself performed ghusl with the water left over from the ghusl of the Mother of the Believers Maymunah, may Allah be pleased with her, and rejected its prohibition (Sahih Muslim: 323).

The basic rule is the saying of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ:

«إِنَّ الْمَاءَ طَهُورٌ لَا يُنَجِّسُهُ شَيْءٌ»

"Indeed, water is purifying; nothing renders it impure" (Sunan Abi Dawud: 66; Jami' al-Tirmidhi: 66 — Imam al-Tirmidhi called it hasan sahih, and Shaykh al-Albani, may Allah have mercy on him, declared it sahih) — except when impurity changes its colour, smell or taste.

Therefore, if some visible impurity (such as urine or faeces) is on the hand and, because of it, one of the attributes (colour, smell or taste) of that small amount of water changes, that water will become impure. But the mere touching of the hand or its going into the water — without any visible impurity and without any change — never makes the water impure, even if the water is little; and this is the view of Shaykh Ibn Baz, may Allah have mercy on him, that even if the hand is put into the vessel after waking from sleep (without washing it), "the water does not become impure and is not spoiled; the water remains upon its purifying quality — although he did not do well (by contravening the prohibition)"; because the origin is precisely that "nothing renders water impure."

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

«إِذَا اسْتَيْقَظَ أَحَدُكُمْ مِنْ نَوْمِهِ فَلَا يَغْمِسْ يَدَهُ فِي الْإِنَاءِ حَتَّى يَغْسِلَهَا ثَلَاثًا، فَإِنَّهُ لَا يَدْرِي أَيْنَ بَاتَتْ يَدُهُ»

"When one of you wakes from his sleep, let him not dip his hand into the vessel until he has washed it three times, for he does not know where his hand spent the night." (Sahih al-Bukhari: 162; Sahih Muslim: 278)

The relevance of this hadith to your issue is only this much: (1) This command is specific to the state of waking from sleep, and its cause is stated in the hadith itself — in sleep the hand may wander anywhere; whereas you were awake, acting deliberately and with a clean hand while performing ghusl. (2) In the view of the scholars, this prohibition does not mean the water becomes impure either — Imam Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him, transmitted that the scholars are in agreement that if the (sleeping) hand is dipped into the water, the water is not spoiled; the one who does so is, however, at fault for contravening the prohibition, because the Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade it. (3) The Sunnah method of ghusl is in any case that both hands be washed three times before beginning the ghusl — 'A'ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, said that when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ performed ghusl from janabah, he would first wash his two hands (Sahih al-Bukhari: 248) — so in future wash your hands first as a precaution; but if the hand ever goes into the water first, both the ghusl and the water are valid — do not fall prey to doubt.

Dear Abdullah! Pay no attention at all to whisperings and doubts. There is great spaciousness and ease in the religion; the origin is precisely that water is pure and a believer's body is not impure either. The ghusl you have performed with that very water is complete and valid in the Shariah — there is no need whatsoever to repeat it.

Translated from the original Urdu fatwa.