Rish: feathers, plumage, and their rulings of purity and use in Islamic jurisprudence

الريش

Rish lexically denotes the plumage of birds, and riyash denotes furnishings and fine clothing, while in fiqh terminology it refers to avian plumage corresponding to mammalian hair, wool, and fur. ¹ Jurists agree on drawing an analogy between feathers and hair; feathers attached to living edible birds are pure by consensus, whereas plucked or shed feathers are deemed pure by the majority, though the Malikis classify down as pure and quills as impure, and the Shafi'is regard detached body parts from living animals as impure. ² Feathers taken from edible carrion are judged pure by Hanafis and Hanbalis because life does not reside in them, impure by Shafi'is, and down alone is pure according to Malikis if sheared. ³ Tanning skin does not purify attached feathers for the Shafi'is because feathers are unaffected by tanning agents, plucking game feathers in the state of ihram is prohibited and requires compensation, and dry cleansing (istinja') with clean, unhallowed feathers is permissible. ⁴ Forward contracts (salam) in defined feathers by weight are valid, and plunging an ungutted bird into boiling water to pluck feathers renders internal flesh impure if boiling heat drives intestine impurities inward, whereas superficial softening of quills without internal cooking allows external washing. ⁵