Purification and Prayer Essentials

Al-Tahawi opens his abridgment of Hanafi fiqh with the chapter on purification, reflecting the traditional scholarly arrangement: no valid prayer exists without prior purification, and purification is therefore the foundational chapter of any fiqh text. The obligatory acts of wudu according to Abu Hanifa are four: washing the face once, washing both arms including the elbows, wiping a quarter of the head, and washing both feet including the ankles. Each of these acts must be performed with the intention of removing the state of ritual impurity, and water used must be pure and purifying, not water that has already been used for obligatory purification or water mixed with a substance that changes its nature significantly.

What invalidates wudu is a matter of considerable detail in the Hanafi school. Among the invalidating causes are: anything that exits from the two passages in the natural way, loss of consciousness through sleep, fainting, or intoxication, flowing blood or pus from the body, and vomiting a mouthful. On the question of touching a woman, the Hanafi position is that mere touching without intercourse does not invalidate wudu, distinguishing their reading from that of the Shafi'is who hold that any skin contact with a woman of marriageable degree breaks the state of purity. Al-Tahawi records this distinction carefully, attributing the Hanafi position to Abu Hanifa, Abu Yusuf, and Muhammad al-Shaybani, the three pillars of the school.

The rules on ritual impurity (najasa) follow naturally from the chapter on purification. The Hanafi school distinguishes between heavy impurity (najasa ghalizah) and light impurity (najasa khafifah). Heavy impurity includes blood, urine, feces, wine, and similar substances. Light impurity includes the urine of animals whose meat is permissible to consume. For heavy impurity on the body or clothing, the ruling is that prayer is invalid if the amount exceeds a dirham in the case of thick substances, or a spread exceeding the palm of the hand in the case of liquids. For light impurity, the threshold is a quarter of the relevant garment before prayer becomes invalid. These distinctions are characteristic of Hanafi precision and reflect the school's effort to apply the prophetic guidance in a systematic and consistent manner.

The removal of najasa follows specific rules. Impure substances on clothing should be washed until the substance is removed, with three washings being the recommended minimum to ensure purification. If impurity falls on the ground, pouring water over it suffices to purify the ground for prayer purposes, though the substance itself must be removed if solid. Al-Tahawi also addresses the purification of vessels: if a dog drinks from a vessel, the Hanafi position requires it to be washed three times and wiped with dry earth once, a ruling derived from the prophetic hadith. This opening chapter sets the methodological tone of the entire text: careful attribution of positions to the three foundational imams, attention to the degrees and thresholds that define legal obligations, and reliance on both Quranic texts and transmitted hadiths to justify the school's rulings.