عرق

العَرَق

In the lexicon, araq is the water that flows from the roots of the hair through the skin. Jurists use it in two senses: what exudes from the body, and a spirit distilled from wine ¹. Human sweat is pure for all jurists, whether from a Muslim or a non-Muslim, a sober or intoxicated person, or someone in a state of menstruation or major impurity ². For animal sweat the Hanafis divide it into pure, impure, disliked and doubtful: pure is that of edible animals and the horse; impure that of the dog, the pig and predatory beasts; disliked that of the cat, a free hen, predatory birds and house vermin; doubtful that of the donkey and the mule ^{2 3}. The Malikis hold that the sweat of every living animal is pure, whether it lives on land or sea and even if it is a dog or a pig ³. The Shafi'is and Hanbalis make the sweat follow the animal: pure if the animal is pure; the Shafi'is treat all animals as pure except the dog and the pig, and the Hanbalis list the impure animals by name ^{3 4}. The spirit distilled from wine has the ruling of wine: it is impure, and whoever drinks it is liable to the prescribed punishment, which on the preferred view applies even to a single drop ⁴.