Purification (Tahara): Water, Impurities, and Wudu

The first substantive section of Al-Majmu' addresses purification (tahara), the foundational prerequisite for prayer and many other acts of worship. Al-Nawawi's treatment of this subject spans several volumes and sets the standard for the level of detail, cross-referencing, and legal precision that characterizes the entire work.

The Classification of Water

Al-Nawawi follows al-Shirazi in classifying water into three categories: (1) tahir mutahhir — pure and purifying (i.e., suitable for ritual purification); (2) tahir ghayru mutahhir — pure but not purifying (used water that can still be drunk but not used for wudu); and (3) najis — impure water that cannot be used for any purpose of ritual purity.

The primary category of pure and purifying water is water that remains in its original natural state without major alteration by external substances. Al-Nawawi discusses at length the threshold at which the addition of impure substances (najasaat) or other materials renders water no longer suitable for purification. The Shafi'i position is that large bodies of water — defined as two qullayn (approximately 270 liters by one estimate) or more — are not rendered impure by the addition of impurities unless their color, taste, or smell is actually changed.

He compares this to the Hanafi position, which holds that any body of water that does not flow is potentially contaminated by impurities regardless of quantity, and to the Maliki position, which focuses primarily on perceptible change. Nawawi argues that the Shafi'i position is best supported by the hadith mentioning the two qullayn threshold and by the general principle of avoiding hardship (raf' al-haraj).

The Conditions and Pillars of Wudu

Wudu (ritual ablution) is the subject of the most detailed treatment in the opening section of Al-Majmu'. Al-Nawawi distinguishes between the fara'id (obligatory acts) of wudu and its sunan (recommended acts). The obligatory acts in the Shafi'i school are: (1) the intention (niyyah); (2) washing the face; (3) washing the arms to the elbows; (4) wiping part of the head; (5) washing the feet to the ankles; and (6) performing these acts in the correct order.

The question of intention is particularly important and controversial. Al-Nawawi explains the Shafi'i requirement that the intention must be present at the beginning of the first obligatory act (washing the face) and must be for purification — not merely for cooling down or removing dirt. He contrasts this with the Hanafi position that the intention is recommended but not obligatory, since Hanafi jurisprudence does not classify intention as a pillar (rukn) of wudu.

Nullifiers of Wudu and the States of Impurity

Al-Nawawi covers the acts that nullify wudu in detail: anything that exits from the front or back passage, loss of consciousness, contact between man and woman according to the relevant Shafi'i opinion, and touching the genitals without a barrier. He then addresses the minor state of ritual impurity (hadath asghar) and the major state (hadath akbar) that requires full bath (ghusl), explaining the conditions that require ghusl: sexual intercourse, emission of seminal fluid, completion of menstruation, and post-natal bleeding.

Throughout these discussions, Al-Nawawi evaluates the supporting hadiths for each ruling, noting when the hadith is in al-Bukhari and Muslim (the highest standard), in only one of the two Sahih collections, in the Sunan works, or in sources of lesser reliability. This integration of hadith criticism into legal commentary was Nawawi's distinctive contribution to the genre.