The Thayammum Process of Cleansing
(A Substitute for Wudu on Rare Occasions)
Believers! Approach not prayers with a mind befogged.
You must be able to understand all that you say (in your salaah).
Nor (should you be) in a state of impurity.
(Resume Salaah) after you have washed
your entire body.
If ye are ill, or on a journey, or one of you cometh from offices of nature, or ye have been in contact with women, and ye find no water, then take for yourselves clean sand or earth, and rub therewith your faces and hands. For God doth blot out (your) sins and forgive (you)
again and again.
(Holy Qur’an: Surah 4th: An Nisaa: 43)
The law of Islam, the Shariyyath, allows an alternate process of cleansing when a bath or Wudu as above is not possible.
Such situations could be:
We need to perform Wudu but no water can be had.
We are too sick and the hot water facility is not available and we cannot risk the use of cold water.
We find a well but cannot draw water as we find neither a rope nor a bucket for it.
An enemy is stalking us and we could get killed if we are discovered seeking water.
We are travelling and would need to trek another mile or so to locate water.
