Islamic Fiqh > Prayer > Tayammum: purification with the earth
When tayammum replaces water, how to perform it, and how long it remains valid.
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Updated on 07 September 2026 at 3:44 PM
When water is missing or its use would harm, Allah offers the earth as purification.
Tayammum is passing pure hands over a pure ground. It replaces water when water is unavailable or risks harm: illness, severe cold, or absence of water within a reasonable distance. The Shafi'is and Hanbalis, as well as Abu Yusuf among the Hanafis, specify that it requires a pure dusty earth that leaves some dust on the hand, based on Allah's words: "then resort to pure earth" (4:43) and the Prophet's words: "the earth has been made for me a place of prayer and its dust a purification".
Without intention, tayammum is not valid: this is agreed upon by the four schools except Zufr among the Hanafis, based on the Prophet's words: "actions are only by intentions" (al-Bukhari 1). The majority (Malikis, Shafi'is, Hanbalis) specify that tayammum makes the prayer permitted without lifting the state of ritual impurity; the Hanafis and the Zahirites hold that it lifts the state like water. In practice: purifying with tayammum is enough to pray, but whoever finds water must redo his purification with it for the next prayer.
After the intention, strike the earth once with both open hands, wipe the face, then strike again and wipe both hands up to the wrists: this is the rite indicated by the verse "wipe your faces and your hands" (4:43). Some schools count additional sunnas such as the basmala.
Everything that cancels ablution cancels tayammum. And when water is found, purification by earth falls away: the Hanafis and the Hanbalis, in the famous view, judge invalid the prayer performed after discovering water, recalling the Prophet's words: "pure earth is the believer's ablution, and if you find water, lay it on your skin".
Look for water first and ask about it within a reasonable distance; if effort, danger or illness make its use harmful, perform tayammum. Purification by earth is an ease from Allah: it is used simply, without complication.
About a league (1.8 km) or an hour's one-way trip per the schools; fear of cold, enemy or shortage counts too.
Any clean dusty surface (ground, wall); one strikes neither food nor precious things.
As long as nothing cancels it, tayammum covers obligatory and supererogatory prayers, like ablution.