Islam Guidance

Verse43

(43) يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ لاَ تَقْرَبُواْ الصّلوةَ وَأَنتُمْ سُكَارَى حَتَّىَ تَعْلَمُواْ مَا تَقُولُونَ وَلاَ جُنُبًا إِلاَّ

عَابِرِي سَبِيلٍ حَتَّىَ تَغْتَسِلُواْ وَإِن كُنتُم مَّرْضَى أَوْ عَلَى سَفَرٍ أَوْ جَاء أَحَدٌ مِّنكُم مِّن الْغَآئِطِ أ َوْ

لاَمَسْتُمُ النِّسَاء فَلَمْ تَجِدُواْ مَاء فَتَيَمَّمُواْ صَعِيدًا طَيِّبًا فَامْسَحُواْ بِوُجُوهِكُمْ وَأَيْدِيكُمْ إِنَّ اللّهَ كَانَ عَفُوًّا غَفُورًا

Section 7
Cleanliness External and Internal
Cleanliness and purity essential preliminary to prayer - Jews exhorted to obey - Polytheism the gravest the unpardonable sin.
43. " O' you who have Faith! do not approach prayer when you are intoxicated, until you know what you say, nor when you are polluted - unless you be passing through - until you wash yourselves. And if you are ill or on a journey, or one of you come from privy or you have touched the women and you cannot find water, then betake yourselves to pure earth then wipe your faces and your hands; Verily Allah is Pardoning, Forgiving."
Commentary:
A Few Legal Ordinances

The following Islamic legal ordinances can be extracted from the above-mentioned verse:
1- Canonical prayers are invalid when the person is intoxicated. The holy verse says:
" O' you who have Faith! do not approach prayer when you are intoxicated, until you know what you say, ..."
The reason of it, of course, is clear, because 'prayer' is the talk and invocation of the servant with Allah and the action must be performed in an utmost conscious state.
2- The prayer is invalid for the person who is in ritual impurity. So, the Qur'an says that you should not approach prayer when you are polluted:
"... nor when you are polluted - ..."
Next to that, it has stated an exception for this ordinance. It says:
"... unless you be passing through - ..."
In this state establishing prayer is permissible on the condition of dry ablution, which will be dealt with in the following.
3- The words refer to the allowance of establishing prayer or passing through a mosque after performing a legal bathing, which has been stated by saying:
"...until you wash yourselves..."
Dry Ablution for the Excused:
Through the next phrase, all religious aspects of dry ablution are stated. At first, it points to the situation in which water is harmful for the health of the body.
"...And if you are ill or on a journey, ..."
Then, it continues saying:
"...or one of you come from privy or you have touched the women, ..."
And, when in this situation, there is not water for ablution:
"...and you cannot find water, ..."
In this condition, you must have recourse to dust:
"... then betake yourselves to pure earth, ..."
In the next sentence, it has stated the style of having recourse to dust. It says:
"...then wipe your faces and your hands; ..."
At the end of the verse, the Qur'an points to this fact that this ordinance is a kind of facilitation and discount for you, since:
"...verily Allah is Pardoning, Forgiving."

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