What is the ruling on praying in sheep pens, and the relationship between prohibition and impurity?

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : The speech. I am saying that, in my opinion, he is telling you that the urine of sheep and the resting places of sheep permit prayer in them. So the interlocutor says that it is permissible for the shepherds to urinate as well, so it means it is not permissible for the shepherds to urinate in the resting place or in the pens of the sheep. And then, do you see how it is? Then he says that since it is permissible to pray in the resting places of sheep, it means one can urinate in them, as if it is permissible by the Shari'ah or not impure. So it means it is forbidden for us to pray in the resting places of camels. How is this prohibition and permission? So what is the purpose of the prohibition and permission regarding prayer in the resting places?

The Shaykh : I did not understand you. Yes, and may Allah grant you success, you are right to ride. You, Professor, are the professor of the night. I want to dream of you first. Separate the sheep pens from the camel enclosures; separate between America. And we are now looking into the topic of sheep pens: is the prayer valid in these pens or not? And so Ibn Hazm says, may Allah have mercy on him. Professor, the best speech is that which is brief and to the point. I asked you: is it permissible to pray in sheep pens? And so Ibn Hazm says? Well, you know that in sheep pens there is sheep dung and sheep urine, right? Well, if this dung and this urine were impure, would the Wise Lawgiver command prayer in these pens? So the conclusion is that sheep urine is pure and its dung is pure. Is this a correct conclusion? Well, you quoted a phrase from Ibn Hazm that confused me because of it. You said that Ibn Hazm permits it, and that there might be a place for the shepherd. Is that what you said? Yes. Well, when Ibn Hazm says it is permissible, what is he aiming at with this permission? What does he mean, as you understood it? He is asking for sleep. He means the prohibition of prayer. Welcome. And the meaning of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is that he said, "Pray in the sheep pens." Correction, correction. So what is your problem? I do not know. As long as the hadith is explicit, as long as the hadith is explicit in permitting prayer in sheep pens, and as long as sheep pens contain the urine and dung of sheep, then this and that, when combined, indicate that this dung, i.e., the excrement, and this urine are pure.

The questioner : Well, what do I want to sell with suspense? Yes. Her daughter, wait, a warning.

The Shaykh : It is up to you, as you wish.

The questioner : Detailed, meaning how?

The Shaykh : We, my brother, are not partisans. We want everything to have a text for it. We have derivation. And this is what Ibn Hazm prohibited because of his rigidity and literalism. When we see, be patient a little. When we see the first piece of evidence. And perhaps you have not forgotten it. What is the first piece of evidence? The evidence regarding the conditions of the place of prayer, and the state of the one who is in a state of ritual impurity. No. No. The strange connection. First of the transactions. No, I mean I am saying something. The first piece of evidence is the presumption of original permissibility. Did it not come from here? It came from here. Do you know what the presumption of original permissibility means? It means there are principles and rules, for example, the default for things is permissibility. For example, is it permissible to drink tea? I say it is permissible. You tell me, give me a text. What is the text that says it is permissible to drink tea? Did he (peace and blessings be upon him) say it is permissible to drink tea? We do not have such a text, do you see how it is? But we have general texts. Scholars took from these general texts and formulated rules, summarizing them in the phrase: "The default for things is permissibility." Do you see how it is? It is not a mushaf. Well, He created for you all that is on the earth for food and drink, and riding, and... But this smoke, for example, is forbidden, for example. Here we say we have evidence. Here we take evidence from other proofs, from other cases. But the rule: is the default for things prohibition or permissibility? Permissibility is the rule. There is another rule with it, such as: the default for things is purity. Do we record a tape or do we weave? Bring a text. Let us see from the Qur'an. Bring a text from the hadith of the Messenger. There is no text that says weaving is pure. But we have a rule. If we are concerned with educating ourselves in religion, we memorize these rules and know their origins. From where? They came. Yes. Let us come to this principle. We said earlier, first, the presumption of original permissibility. This is the expression of al-Shawkani and others. That means we have a text that the urine of an animal whose meat is eaten is impure. If our conscience is clear, if we do not step on this urine or if its spray hits us, the Lawgiver did not obligate us to purify our clothes from it. What do you want? What is this? The first piece of evidence. The second piece of evidence: we brought you the hadith "Pray in the sheep pens," and we brought you the hadith of the 'Uraynah regarding the camels, which is in disagreement with your companion Ibn Hazm. So here is a hadith and here is a hadith. One is about the urine of camels and the other is about the urine of sheep. You will tell me, well, what about the urine of gazelles and the urine of chickens, and it will have its own urine, and so on. There is nothing to it. Do not complicate matters. As long as the default is purity, when you say impurity, I tell you: bring the evidence, because it is contrary to the default, and the default is not abandoned except for a specific piece of evidence. So up to now we are holding to the default, plus two specific pieces of evidence regarding two types of urine: camels and sheep. What more do you want? Where do you want us to bring the evidence that the animal whose meat is not eaten is impure? Well, may Allah guide us and you. We are now talking about what is pure. Later, when the topic comes, in the second chapter, let us finish the first chapter. So you have finished with what we are deleting in the topic related to the first chapter. Well. There we presented to you the evidence. Where did we bring it from? You forgot the hadith of the two buckets. Simple. From where did we get that urine is like meat? And he said about it "urine," he did not say about it "eats meat" or "does not eat meat." Or its impurity. That is, from where did we get that if its meat is eaten, its urine is pure, and if its meat is not eaten, its urine is impure? For you, my friend, it is rich. It is not eaten. Yes. Well, the camels. Yes. Well, if camels and sheep are eaten, and it is established that their urine is pure, how should we answer the question?

The questioner : How? For example, horses.

The Shaykh : Let us illustrate it. "Its meat is eaten" — we did not answer. I want to help, and we want to answer for you. Every hadith. The problem is that the jurist in the world is never one who, if he wants every issue to have a hadith created specifically for it, tailored to his liking, in detail. That is impossible. The default for urine is prohibition, unless a specific text comes. You are making many mistakes. Did we research prohibition or impurity? Prohibition or impurity? It is possible. Why are you researching prohibition? Is it permissible for you to marry your mother if she is impure? May Allah guide you. Why do you link prohibition and impurity? We did not research this with you. Be patient with us, because how many people are there? Thirty, forty, fifty. If the patience is distributed among them, it is easier than one person bearing fifty. That is, one person bearing fifty is harder than fifty bearing one. According to the people of resolve, the resolute ones. We have repeatedly discussed the impurity and purity of intoxicants. What is it? And we concluded that intoxicants are forbidden but not impure. How? But those who held the view that intoxicants are impure derived impurity from prohibition, and this is a mistake you will fall into.