Discover the meaning of the term Al-tymm (تيمم) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 4 min readIn language: aiming absolutely; in the Sharia: aiming at pure earth and employing it in a specific manner to remove the ritual impurity.
In language: aiming. In the Sharia: aiming at pure earth and employing it in a specific manner to remove the ritual impurity. In 'Jami' al-Rumuz': tayammum is, in language, aiming, and in law, specific acts. In 'al-Kafi' and elsewhere: the aiming at earth to remove the impurity; and it is not hidden that it is not without something.
In language: aiming; one says: 'tayammantu fulanan wa ta'ammantuhu, wa tawammantuhu, wa ammantuhu': that is, I aimed at him; its whole origin is from al-umm, which is the aim; hence the saying of the poet: 'I know not, when I aim over a land, which of the two goods I seek.' Al-Jawhari said: 'and tayammantu al-sa'id li-l-salat' (I performed tayammum with earth for prayer); its root is intending and seeking. Ibn al-Sikkit said, concerning the word of the Most High: 'then perform tayammum with pure earth.'
Of a thing: he sought it and aimed at it. In the mighty Quran: 'O you who believe, spend of the good things you have earned and of what We brought out of the earth for you, and do not seek the bad of it to spend, while you would not take it yourselves except with closed eyes; and know that Allah is Rich, Praiseworthy' (al-Baqara, 267), that is, Allah, the Most High, commanded them charity from the best of their wealth, its most generous and precious, and forbade them giving in charity the worst of wealth and its lowliest, which is 'khabitha'; for Allah is good and accepts only the good. Of the sick person for prayer: he wiped his face and hands with dust. And in the mighty revelation: 'And if you are sick, or on a journey, or one of you comes from the privy, or you have touched women, and you find no water, then perform tayammum with pure earth and wipe your faces and your hands with it; Allah is ever Pardoning, Forgiving' (al-Nisa, 43). Al-tayammum: the aiming; in the Sharia: the aiming at earth to wipe the face and hands with the intention of permitting prayer and the like (Ibn Hajar). In the Sharia: its purification is earthy, necessary, with specific acts employed when unable to use water or when water is absent (Atfayyish). Al-yamam: the wild dove, its singular feminine being yamama. Al-yamm: the sea; (plural) yumum.
Wiping the face and the two hands in order with the intent of purification.
The masdar of tayammam; aiming, intending and seeking. Intending to. Wiping the face and hands with dust or the like with the intent of purity. Ceremony of ablution performed with sand instead of water.