Elements of Islamic Studies

Lesson 18: Useful Explanations Part III

  1. Ghasbi: Anything taken by force from others without their consent; likewise, anything taken from others in normal transaction with an intention of not paying its price.

  2. Mubah: legal; lawful; taken with consent of the owner.

  3. Hadath: Those impurities (najasah) which require niyyah (intention) for cleaning, like those things after which wudhu or ghusl becomes necessary. Hadath is of two kinds: greater and smaller.

  4. The greater Hadath: Those things which require ghusl for being clean, like janabat, haidh, nifas, istihaza and mass al-mayyit.

  5. The smaller Hadath: Those things which require wudhu for being clean, like sleep etc.

  6. Khabath: Those impurities (najasat) which do not require niyyah for cleaning like all the najasah described in Lesson 19.

Note: The difference between hadath and khabath may be described thus: Khabath is external impurity (najasah) and therefore there is no need of niyyah for cleaning it, while hadath is not an external but a spiritual uncleanliness, and therefore it requires the attention and Intention of spirit to clean it.

Note no 2. To make the above point more clear it is advisable to mention that, for example, when a person goes to the the toilet, he acquires both kinds of najasah i.e. the khabath and hadath - khabath is the external najasah which he cleanses without any niyyah, and thus his body becomes tahir. But still, he cannot pray; because the spiritual najasah i.e. hadath has not been removed. It will be removed when he will perform wudhu (with niyyah) and then he will be qualified spiritually to converse with Allah.

  1. Muwalat: To perform any act, e.g. wudhu, without interruption; to perform all parts of the act one after another without a gap.
  2. Tartib: To perform every act in the same order that has been approved in the Shari’ah.