Ard (land: purity, places and rulings)

Ard is the land on which people stand; the word is feminine, a collective noun, with plurals aradi, arud and aradun. ¹ Land is pure by default, by the agreement of the scholars, so prayer is valid on any part of it that has not been made impure. The basis is the report of al-Bukhari from Jabir that the earth was made a place of prayer and purity for the Prophet ﷺ; a report of Muslim says its dust is purifying. ¹ If land is made impure by a liquid such as urine or wine, it is purified by flooding it with water until its colour and smell go, and the water that runs off unchanged is pure; this is the view of most jurists, on the report of the Bedouin who urinated in the mosque and whom the Prophet had a bucket of water poured over. Rain or a flood that runs over it purifies it in the same way, since purifying an impurity requires neither intention nor act. ^{1 3} Abu Hanifa holds that soft ground is purified by flooding, as the majority say, but hard ground is not purified until the water runs off and becomes impure, since the impurity has passed into it; it is purified by digging until the digging reaches a place the impurity has not reached, or by covering it with earth until the smell is gone. ³ If a liquid impurity dries, most jurists say it is purified only by water. Abu Hanifa and his two companions, in the more evident view, say that it is purified for prayer on it but not for tayammum from it; some say it is purified for both. They cite a report of al-Bukhari and Abu Dawud from Ibn Umar that dogs urinated and came and went in the mosque, and the people did not sprinkle water on any of it. Some Shafi'is hold that land dried in shade is purified, on a report of Abu Qilaba. ³ An impurity that is not liquid, made of separate parts such as dung, manure or dried blood mixed into the soil, is not purified by washing; the place must be removed until the impurity is certainly gone, and there is no disagreement on this. ³ Istijmar is removing an impurity with small stones, and cleaning with stones is valid, as cleaning with water is, by agreement. ³ A shoe or similar item made impure by a liquid is cleansed only by washing. Where the impurity is solid, rubbing purifies it, on the preferred view of the Hanafis and Malikis and the sound Hanbali view, on the hadith of Abu Hurayra (may God be pleased with him): if one of you treads on filth with his shoe, dust is its purifier. The Shafi'is hold it is purified only with pure water, which is also a Hanbali report. ^{3 4} The Shafi'is and Hanbalis require dust with water in cleansing the impurity of a dog or pig, on the hadith of Abu Hurayra that a vessel licked by a dog is washed seven times, the first with dust, and they extend this to pigs. The Hanafis and Malikis do not require dust; see the entry on the dog. ⁴ The jurists agree that tayammum permits what wudu and ghusl permit when its cause is present, and that tayammum is valid with pure dust by consensus; they differ on other kinds of earth, see the entry on tayammum. ⁴ Prayer on pure land is valid in every place by agreement. The jurists differ on prayer on impure land: most forbid it, while the Malikis in their well-known view allow it. Special places have their own rulings, such as the inside of the Ka'ba, cemeteries, bathhouses, latrines, camel pens, usurped land, the land of torment, churches and the road, treated in their own entries. ⁴ The land of torment (ard al-adhab) is the land where a people who denied their messengers were punished, such as the land of Babylon and the dwellings of Thamud, as in the verses of surat al-Hijr (80-83). It is disliked to enter it; whoever enters should do so with awe and haste, following the Prophet's advice: do not enter upon these punished people unless you are weeping, lest what befell them befall you. ^{4 2} The water of its wells may not be used by a person for cooking and kneading, but may be used by other beings; the Prophet, when the people drew water from the wells of Thamud and kneaded dough with it, ordered them to pour out what they had drawn, feed the dough to the camels, and draw from the well the she-camel used to drink from. ² Tayammum with the dust of this land is disliked by the Hanafis and Shafi'is; the Malikis have two views, one forbidding and one allowing it, the latter preferred by al-Tata'i. ² Prayer in it: the Malikis' chosen view is that it is valid unless there is an impurity there; the Hanbalis and Hanafis hold it valid with disapproval, as it is a place under God's displeasure; Ibn al-Arabi of the Malikis and some scholars deny its validity, since it is an exception to the saying that the earth was made a mosque for me. It is reported that Ali disliked praying at the subsidence of Babylon. ² The jurists agree that produce from the land, such as crops and fruit, is subject to zakat under its conditions, and the same holds for minerals and buried treasure, treated in the entries on zakat and on minerals and treasure. ² The sacred precinct may be revived, and the imam may grant it to be held; whoever revives it may dispose of it, by sale and otherwise. ²