The meaning of the saying of Allah the Exalted: "And if you are ill or on a journey, or one of you comes from the place of relief, or you have touched women, and you find no water, then seek out clean earth"

The Shaykh : Allah the Exalted says: If a person is required to perform the ablution for prayer or is required to perform the full ritual bath, but he is unable to use water, either because it is unavailable or because using it would cause him harm, what does he do? He performs dry ablution. Allah Mighty and Majestic says, "then seek out clean earth," meaning aim for clean earth. Clean earth is anything on the surface of the earth that is of the earth's kind, such as soil, sand, or stone; anything on the earth that is of the earth's kind. As for carpets and the like, it is not permissible to perform dry ablution on them unless they contain dust, because if they contain dust, they contain something of the earth's kind that is clean.
If we do not find water, or if a person is ill and would be harmed by using it, he performs dry ablution. How does he perform it? He strikes the ground with his hands and wipes his face and his hands up to the wrists only; wiping the face and the wrists only. This is because Allah the Exalted said: and it is not up to the elbows, because when Allah the Exalted intended for the hands to be up to the elbows in the ablution for prayer, He said: And when "hand" is used in a general sense, it means only the palm. The evidence for this is the saying of Allah the Exalted: and only the palm is cut off from the thief. So a person strikes the ground and wipes his face and his palms only. Is there a difference between dry ablution for minor ritual impurity or major ritual impurity? The answer is: No, because Allah said: So dry ablution for major ritual impurity and for minor ritual impurity is the same, with no difference. For this reason, when 'Amir ibn Yasir (may Allah be pleased with him) was in a state of major ritual impurity while traveling, he would roll in the earth. "Rolling" means he would tumble in the earth, as a beast rolls. He thought that the purification of earth, like the purification of water, had to cover the entire body. Then he informed the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) of this, and the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him: This is dry ablution for minor ritual impurity and major ritual impurity. You note now that there is no rinsing of the mouth or sniffing of water into the nose, is there not? Good. Why? Because rinsing the mouth and sniffing water into the nose are impossible here. How can one rinse the mouth with soil or sniff soil? It is not possible. And if someone says, "Why do you not obligate him to rinse his mouth and sniff water into his nose with water he has, such as what he drinks?" We say: because purification is not divisible. If it is due to the absence of water or illness, we say in this case he performs dry ablution. He performs dry ablution for what? For minor ritual impurity and major ritual impurity equally, because the intention is to humble oneself before Allah Mighty and Majestic by wiping the face and palms with soil. I said that purification is not divisible if it is due to absence or illness. But if it is due to a defect in one of the limbs, such as if a person's hand is injured and he is able to perform the ablution for prayer with the rest of his limbs, then he performs the ablution for prayer for the rest of his limbs and performs dry ablution for the injured hand that he cannot wash.