SECTION ON PURIFICATION · 139 – THE PURIFICATION OF THE EARTH BY DRYING
382 – From Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him): In the time of the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him), I used to sleep in the mosque. At that time, I was a young and unmarried man. Dogs would come to the mosque, urinate, and then return. Water was not sprinkled over the places where they had urinated.
EXPLANATION
The Masjid al-Saʿāda (the Mosque of Felicity) had no door. It was not possible to prevent dogs from coming and going. However, they did not always pass through; sometimes they would pass through only occasionally. In the wording found in al-Bukhārī, the phrase "they would urinate" does not appear. Because the dogs, even if only rarely, would urinate in the mosque as they passed through, and water was not poured over their urine, this indicates that earth dried by the sun is considered purified. According to Imām al-Aʿẓam (Abū Ḥanīfa): If the earth dries by the sun and the traces of impurity disappear, it becomes pure. According to al-Shāfiʿī and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, if impurity touches a place, it can only be purified with water; it cannot be purified by drying in the sun. (Maʿālim al-Sunan, vol. 1, p. 226)