Tayammum: purifying without water
When you can use earth instead of water, how to do it, how long it lasts, and where the schools differ.
7 minute read · SunnahPanda
Tayammum is a dry purification with clean earth, standing in for wudu or ghusl when water can't be used. It is one of the clearest signs of how Islam lifts hardship: the prayer never has to be missed for lack of water.
And if you are ill or on a journey, or one of you comes from relieving himself, or you have touched women and do not find water, then seek clean earth and wipe over your faces and your hands with it.
When you can use it
- There is no water, after a reasonable search for it nearby.
- There is only enough water for drinking, for you or for others with you.
- Using water would harm you: an illness, a wound or burn, or a doctor's advice that water will make it worse or slow recovery.
- It is so cold that water would cause real harm and there is no way to warm it.
- Reaching the water is dangerous, or it is out of reach.
Tayammum replaces both wudu and ghusl. The method is the same either way; only the intention differs.
How to do it
This follows the description the Prophet ﷺ gave to 'Ammar ibn Yasir (Sahih al-Bukhari 338, Sahih Muslim 368):
- 1
Intend
Intend in your heart to purify yourself for prayer by tayammum, and say Bismillah.
- 2
Strike the earth
Strike both palms once on clean earth or dust.
- 3
Shake off the excess
Blow or tap off the loose dust, so it isn't smeared on your face.
- 4
Wipe the face
Wipe the whole face once with both palms.
- 5
Wipe the hands
Wipe the back of the right hand with the left palm, then the back of the left hand with the right palm.
School by school
| Hanafi | Maliki | Shafi'i | Hanbali | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strikes on the earth | Two: one for the face, one for the arms | One is obligatory; a second is sunnah | Two: one for the face, one for the arms | One |
| How much of the arms | Up to the elbows | Wrists obligatory, elbows sunnah | Up to the elbows | Up to the wrists |
| What you can use | Anything of the earth: soil, sand, stone, clay | Anything of the earth: soil, sand, stone, clay | Only dust | Only dust |
| Before the prayer time starts | Allowed | Not valid | Not valid | Not valid |
| How long it lasts | Like wudu, until broken | One obligatory prayer | One obligatory prayer | Until the prayer's time ends |
Swipe the table to see every column →
Where to find clean earth indoors
A smooth wall or floor without dust on it does not count in the Shafi'i and Hanbali schools, since they require dust. Many people in hospital or care homes keep a small sealed bag or block of clean earth, or a dusty stone, for this purpose.
What ends it
- Everything that breaks wudu, or that requires ghusl if the tayammum was in place of ghusl.
- Finding water, or becoming able to use it again, for example once a wound heals.
- In the schools that limit it, the end of the prayer time or finishing the obligatory prayer it was made for.
If you find water after praying
Two Companions prayed with tayammum and then found water while the time was still in. One repeated his prayer and the other didn't. The Prophet ﷺ told the one who didn't that he had followed the sunnah, and told the other he had a double reward (Sunan Abi Dawud 338). The majority hold the prayer does not need repeating. The schools differ if water appears during the prayer itself.
Wounds, casts and dressings
If only part of a limb can't be washed, the rest of the wudu is done with water as usual. You wipe over the cast, splint or dressing with a wet hand instead of washing beneath it. The schools differ on whether tayammum must also be added in this case; ask your teacher which view to follow.
Good to know
Planning a hospital stay, or caring for an elderly parent? Ask the ward for a bowl and jug at the bedside first. Wudu with a little water is better when it's possible, and tayammum is there for when it isn't.
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