SECTION ON PURITY · 40 – THE RULING OF PERFORMING ABLUTION WITH EXCESS WATER USED FOR ABLUTION
81 – Humayd el-Humayri, may Allah be pleased with him, narrated: I met a man who had been in the company of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, for four years, like Abu Huraira. He said: The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, forbade a woman from using the water left over from a man's ablution, and forbade a man from using the water left over from a woman’s ablution. In the narration of Musaddad, it was added: "(Let them wash together)." [90]
*Explanation:* While in hadiths numbered 77, 78, 79, and 80, it is stated that a woman may perform ghusl and wudu with water used by another, this hadith prohibits it. The reconciliation between these hadiths is as follows: If the water a woman uses for ghusl or wudu is poured into a container, it loses its purifying quality due to being mixed with used water. In such cases, the woman may not use the water left over from a man’s ablution, and the man may not use the water left over from a woman's ablution. The difference lies in whether the water in the container was handled and scooped up, allowing for the possibility of the used water mixing with open water. Using water from stoves, jugs, where half is used by a man and the other half by a woman, or half by a woman and the other half by a man, does not fall under this difference, because the water in the container has not been touched, nor is there a possibility of it being used water. A concession is prescribed at the end of the hadith: that women and men scoop up the water together. If they both scoop up the water simultaneously, then they may use each other’s leftover water for ablution and ghusl, because the water is not legally considered to be the leftover of either one.
82 – Hakim bin Amr, may Allah be pleased with him, narrated: The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, forbade a man from performing wudu with the water left over from a woman’s ablution. [91]