What is the measure of the two qullahs mentioned in the hadith (If water reaches two qullahs, it does not carry impurity)?

The questioner : Regarding the hadith in the chapter of ritual purity, which is , do you have approximate information? Because some of them ask that he would like to clarify to his students exactly how much the two qullahs weigh, because he does not want Iraqi weights or Syrian pounds; he wants to know how much that equals in our time, for example, how many ten-gallon jugs?

The Shaykh : I have an answer, but I do not have knowledge of the qullah in our time, when the Sunnah was available and collected in the pages of the books. Do you hear me?

The questioner : Yes, I hear you.

The Shaykh : The hadith of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri regarding the well of Budha'ah suffices us for the hadith of the two qullahs. Do you know it?

The questioner : I am listening to it.

The Shaykh : It is that menstruation, carrion, and the like were thrown into it, and he was asked about this water, so his answer, peace and blessings be upon him, was . We understand the hadith of the two qullahs to have been an answer to a specific incident. Do you hear me?

The questioner : I hear you.

The Shaykh : It was an answer to a specific incident, a response to that specific incident. He said, peace and blessings be upon him, . So he did not make it a general rule, but rather he answered that specific incident itself. Why? Because neither the Shari'ah nor reason, which relies on the Shari'ah, agrees that if there are two qullahs of water in a container that holds four qullahs, and one qullah of impurity is poured into this container, what is the total amount present in this container?The questioner : What is the total amount present in this container?

The questioner : Three qullahs.

The Shaykh : Three qullahs: two qullahs of water and another qullah of urine. Does this water not carry the impure and the filth?

The questioner : Definitely.

The Shaykh : It does not carry it. If we were to take the hadith in its absolute sense, we would have to say it does not carry filth, meaning it remains pure if the water reaches two qullahs, it does not carry filth, meaning it does not become impure. But now, in the scenario I presented to you, it becomes impure.

The questioner : It becomes impure one hundred percent.

The Shaykh : Where did we take this ruling from? From the hadith of Abu Sa'id , meaning as long as it is water, it is purifying. When a qullah of urine fell into these two qullahs, it carried the filth and carried the impurity, so it became impure. Why? Because it ceased to be absolute water. The point of the entire discussion is that we act according to the hadith of the well, not the hadith of the two qullahs, because the hadith of the two qullahs was an answer to a specific incident. That water, which was two qullahs, had a specific type of impurity fall into it, so the water in the two qullahs does not become impure. But if an impurity equal to the two qullahs of water falls into it, it cannot be said that this does not become impure. Therefore, whether the qullah at that time equaled, for example, ten ten-gallon jugs today, making the total of the two qullahs twenty ten-gallon jugs, or a little less, or a little more, the issue does not concern us, because the issue now is not about this measure by which we measure water today to determine if it is pure or impure. Rather, it is that you look at one of its three attributes: has it changed or not? So this is the criterion, not the ten-gallon jugs. Is that clear?

The questioner : Very clear.

The Shaykh: May Allah give you health.

The questioner : May Allah grant you well-being.

The Shaykh : Is there anything else?

The questioner : Make a supplication for us.

The Shaykh : May you be successful in all good.

The questioner : Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah.