Answered by Shaykh Hamza Karamali, SunniPath Academy Teacher
In the Reliance it says: e1.9: Water Is Affected by User’s Contact with less than 216 liters, if a person performing ablution (after washing his face once) or the purificatory bath (after making intention for it) makes the intention in his heart to use his hands to scoop up the water, then the introduction of his hands into this amount of water does not make the water used. But if not (O: if he does not make this intention at all, or does so after putting his hands in the water, which is less than 216 liters), then the rest of the water is considered as already used (n: and no longer purifying…?
My Question is: Does one require a separate intention every time one puts ones hand in the container (i.e. after the other integrals like the arms, head and feet), or is one intention with the first scooping sufficient to scoop for the rest of these without an intention for each scooping? And does this only count for scooping water out? Can one, for instance, make intention then submerge ones arm or foot and consider it washed and consider the water still purifying?
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate
assalamu `alaykum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh
The Original Ruling
It is an integral part of ablution to make an intention for ablution while washing the face. Scholars explain that this intention does not have to persist throughout the ablution: its existence at the beginning of the ablution suffices for the remainder of the ablution as long as one does not actively negate the intention later on.
Based on this, someone who enters his hand into a container of water after washing his face three times will be considered to be using the water of the container to lift the ritual impurity on his hand (since the hands and arms are washed after the face), thus rendering the water in the container “used”. The way to avoid falling into this inconvenient situation is to explicitly intend at this point to merely scoop the water out of the container, not to remove ritual impurity from one’s hand. This intention only needs to be made when the limb that is being entered into the container is the limb that is next in the washing sequence.
In our times, this ruling is generally inapplicable because people normally use taps or showers to perform ablution or the purificatory bath.
The Dispensation
If, however, one is in a situation where one needs to scoop water out of a container rather than pour it onto one’s limbs, then this ruling can be quite inconvenient. There is no need, though, to get frustrated and pull out your hair because there is an alternative position chosen by several prominent Shafi`i scholars–including Ibn `Abd al-Salam, Baghawi, and Ghazali–that it is not necessary to make this special intention when scooping out water from a container. Abu Makhrama, one of the great late Shafi`i scholars of Yemen, said that because of the existence of scholarly disagreement on this matter, scholars should not make things difficult for laypeople but rather give fatwa according to the dispensation adopted by Ghazali. (Bughyat al-mustarshidin fi talkhis fatawa ba`d al-a’imma min al-`ulama’ al-muta’akhkhirin, p. 12)
Generally speaking, scholars recommend “taking it easy” with respect to matters of purification and saving one’s energy to take oneself to task on other more significant issues, such as earning a lawful income and purifying one’s heart.
And Allah Most High knows best.
Hamza.