Islamophobe gets refuted
Video is also uploaded here
Sunan Abu Dawud 67--I heard that the people asked the Prophet of Allah (peace be upon him): Water is brought for you from the well of Buda’ah. It is a well in which dead dogs, menstrual cloths and excrement of people are thrown. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) replied: Verily water is pure and is not defiled by anything.
The hadith is talking about ablution and nothing more since Muslims have to purify themselves before the five daily prayers. So the Prophet (peace be upon him) never claimed that Muslims can drink impure water.
It's interesting to note that the 'well' was thought to be running water, thus the assumption is any impurities would flow away:
Imam al-Tahawi said that the well of Buda`ah was like a rive leading to a garden. This means that the water is always running and it is not stagnant. Therefore, the Prophet declared it to be a pure source of water.
The Islamophobe, in the video also claims the people were throwing the impurities into the well. This is not true as it was the rain which brought the impurities into the 'well':
Imam al-Khattabi said that it should not be understood that the companions were not the ones who used to throw dead dogs or menstrual clothes into the well of Buda`ah. The companions were the cleanest ever people. It is not even accepted that non-Muslim people of that time used to do that. (Ma`alim al-Sunan, 1/37)
Also, the Prophet was only speaking about this well and this situation in this regard when he mentioned water is pure:
Other scholars maintained that when the Prophet said: “Water is pure”, he was referring to the water of the well of Buda`ah. This means that the Prophet was confirming the purity of this well as it is too large to be contaminated by the impurities that were thrown into it by the heavy rain.
The comment about the water not being defiled by anything is explained:
Basically this is implying that because the well was so huge, such a small amount of impurities will not ruin the whole well. (Muhammad Shams al-Haqq al-Adhim Abadi)
The Islamophobe misleads people into thinking Islam's position on water is that is cannot be made impure. Of course this is untrue.
Water is differentiated into two type - large and small quantities. Sheikh Abdul Sattar teaches us that even a drop of impurity renders a small quantity impure. As for the large quantities, these two can be made impure - see video presentation.
The video also brought to our attention the context. We must remember in ancient times the people had to bathe and wash themselves - they didn't have taps to switch on back in those days. They used lakes, wells, streams, rivers, collected rain water etc.
Of course, most of these sources will have come into contact with some sort of dead animal or animal waste at some time or another. Would a reasonable person expect them never to bathe or wash considering that was their only water supply? Of course not. Would a reasonable person decontextualize and insult these people based on /western pre-modern water purity quality? Of course not.
In fact, the Christian Islamophobe also insulted his Christian traditions indirectly through his ignorance and enthusiasm to attack, mock and decontextualize the hadith. How so? Well, as seen in the video we see the River Jordan (where Christians believe Jesus(p) was baptised), now one would be naïve to believe no dead body or waste floated in there!
The Islamophobe also cited:
It was narrated that Jabir bin 'Abdullah said:
"We came to a pond in which there was the carcass of a donkey, so we refrained from using the water until the Messenger of Allah came to us and said: 'Water is not made impure by anything.' Then we drank from it and gave it to our animals to drink, and we carried some with us."
Firstly this hadith is weak.
Secondly, if this hadith is accurate, the word used based on my dictionary check actually means brook/rivulet/beck, which means a small stream (flowing water) - thus not a pond. Of course, flowing water is abundant so a small amount of impurity is not going to affect it for the purpose of washing. Flowing water, one would assume, would carry away the impurity - plus one can collect water upstream of the impurity.
Having said that - we must always remember context which was touched upon in this post and in the video.
See video for further detail and understanding.
In summary:The Prophet was speaking about specific cases - the water which is was in front of him.
In both cases, the water seems to have been flowing (this does not mean it could have not referred to stagnant water as large quantities of stagnant water are indeed still pure for ablution as long as it meets the criteria the scholar mentions)
The water being spoken about is in large quantities thus relatively small amounts of impurities are not going to render the water impure for ablution (listen to Purity and Islam, by Sheikh Hussein Abdul Sattar - link below)
These were different times and thus context must be applied - if a person is going to unfairly criticise Prophet Muhammad (p) then one is indirectly criticising Jews, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and other folk who claim to follow their respective ancient religious people.
Explanation of the Well of Bada'ah Hadith:
http://thefactsaboutislam.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/explanation-for-hadith-of-well-of.html
Further discussion plus a citation taken from here:
http://www.islamic-life.com/forums/anti-islamic-refutations/refuting-3251/page2
Purity and Islam by Sheikh Hussein Abdul Sattar, first part is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCfafndkXy4
