Al-Mā’idah 5:6
The verse
O ye who believe! When ye rise up for prayer, wash you faces, and your hands up to the elbows, and lightly rub your heads and (wash) your feet up to the ankles. And if ye are unclean, purify yourselves. And if ye are sick or on a journey, or one of you cometh from the closet, or ye have had contact with women, and ye find not water, then go to clean, high ground and rub your faces and your hands with some of it. Allah would not place a burden on you, but He would purify you and would perfect His grace upon you, that ye may give thanks. — Marmaduke Pickthall
The issue
This verse points out the causes that would break one’s ablution, including, “if one of
you come from the privy, or if ye have touched women...” (Q 5.6).
This phrase is also found verbatim in Q 4.43: “...or one of you come from the privy,”
which al-Rāzī explains as “meaning answering nature’s call, which is explained by
Muslim scholars as whatever comes out of the two orifices (meaning urination and
defecation).”
As to the meaning of the phrase, “have touched women,” there are several detailed
explanations, ranging from sexual intercourse to simply touching a woman.
Question: Is moving from answering nature’s call to touching a woman a sign of
superior rhetoric? More importantly, doesn’t this verse degrade the value of women
when it puts women side by side with answering nature’s call? It appears to make the
two equal by connecting them as agents of breaking the ablution by the use of the word “or.”
Arabic text of this item
تشير الآية إلى الأسباب الناقضة للوضوء: <أَوْ جَاء أَحَدٌ مَّنكُم مِّنَ الْغَائِطِ أَوْ لاَمَسْتُمُ النِّسَاء> (المائدة 5: 6). وقد ورد نفس المقطع حرفياً في آية أخرى (النساء 4: 43).
<أَوْ جَاء أَحَدٌ مَّنكُم مِّنَ الْغَائِطِ>: «كناية عن قضاء الحاجة، وأكثر العلماء ألحقوا به كل ما يخرج من السبيلين». أما بخصوص معنى<لاَمَسْتُمُ النِّسَاء>،فثمة شروحات مستفيضة بشأن معناها: الجماع واللمسّ (الملامسة). وقد فصلها الطبري في تناوله للآية 43 من سورة النساء.
ونسأل: هل من البيان الانتقال من الغائط إلى النساء؟
والأكثر أهمية، ألا تبخّس هذه الآية من المرأة وتنزل بمكانتها عندما تقرنها بالغائط؟ مع ما يظهر من مساواة بين الإثنين والربط بينهما كعاملي نقض للوضوء باستعمال أداة العطف «أو».
Sources cited
- الطبري 7: 62 - 75.
- الرازي 11: 172.