How to Muslim
When there is no water, or water would harm you, tayammum takes the place of wudu and ghusl. It takes about ten seconds: one touch of clean earth, wipe the face, wipe the hands. Also spelled tayamum.
The earth has been made for me a place of prayer and a means of purification.
Tayammum is purification with clean earth instead of water. It stands in for wudu, and it stands in for ghusl. Once you have done it you are in a valid state of purity: you may pray, recite, touch the Mushaf, do anything you could do after wudu.
It is not a lesser version of wudu that you make up later. Prayers you pray with it are complete prayers.
The Quran sets tayammum out twice, in the same terms both times:
The second passage, in Surah Al-Ma'idah, gives the reason in the same breath as the ruling. This is the answer to the worry that using tayammum is somehow cutting a corner.
Any one of these is enough. You do not need more than one:
Anything from the ground that is clean and dry:
If only part of you cannot take water, you do not do tayammum for all of it. Wash what you can wash, and wipe over the bandage or cast covering the part you cannot.
If you are unsure whether your situation counts, ask someone. That is the point of the hadith.
Ammar ibn Yasir became junub on a journey with no water and rolled himself in the dust, unsure what else to do. The Prophet (peace be upon him) told him that was not needed, and showed him:
One strike. Two wipes. That is the whole of it.
The intention sits in the heart. There is nothing to recite and no formula to learn. Know that you are purifying yourself so you can pray, and the intention is made.
Place both palms flat on clean earth, dust, stone or a dusty surface. One touch is all that is reported. If your hands come up heavy with dust, blow the excess off.
Pass both palms over your whole face, once. You do not need to rub, and water is not involved at any point.
Wipe the back of the right hand with the left palm, then the back of the left with the right palm, up to the wrists. Not to the elbows.
As long as your reason for it lasts, and it covers as many prayers as your wudu would. You do not renew it for every prayer.
After that, wash as normal for the next prayer.
Your prayer stands. You do not repeat it. Two men on a journey prayed with tayammum and then found water while the prayer time was still in:
Neither man was told off. But the one who left his prayer alone is the one who was told he had it right.
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Where to take this further.
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islamic-library.org · FreeResearch-driven answers to the doubts and questions Muslims actually have.
yaqeeninstitute.org · Free