Renewing the Water for Wiping the Ears

The disagreement

The majority agreed on the legitimacy of wiping the ears, and they differed regarding the ruling of renewing the water for them when wiping them, into three opinions.

The opinions

• The water is renewed for wiping the ears

Aḥmad / Mālik (the well-known view)

• The ears are wiped with the head and the water is not renewed for them

Abū Ḥanīfah

• The water is renewed for wiping the ears (as recommendation)

al-Shāfiʿī / Mālik (a narration)

Reason for the disagreement

Is the ear an independent limb by itself in wuḍūʾ such that water is renewed for it, or is it part of the head?

Evidence

First opinion

• The ears are part of the head, due to the ḥadīth:

«الأذنان من الرأس»

[Reported by: Aḥmad / Abū Dāwūd / al-Tirmidhī / authenticated by al-Albānī]

And renewing the water is recommended, because he ﷺ took new water for them, as in the ḥadīth of ʿAbdullāh ibn Zayd رضي الله عنه:

(he took for his ears water other than that with which he took for his head),

and because it is established from Ibn ʿUmar رضي الله عنه that he used to take for his ears water other than that with which he wiped his head.

Second opinion

• The ears are part of the head, due to the ḥadīth:

«الأذنان من الرأس»

so they are wiped with the water of the head, like the rest of the head.

Third opinion

• The ears are two independent limbs by themselves in wuḍūʾ and not from the head, due to the ḥadīth of ʿAbdullāh ibn Zayd رضي الله عنه:

(he took for his ears water different from that with which he took for his head).

Al-Bayhaqī said: its chain is ṣaḥīḥ, and al-Albānī said: it is shādh.

References

Bidāyat al-Mujtahid wa Nihāyat al-Muqtaṣid (1/33), al-Hidāyah (1/27), Badā’iʿ al-Ṣanā’iʿ (1/108), al-Tafrīʿ (1/90), al-Maʿūnah (1/20), Wiqāyat al-Ṭālib (1/83), al-Bayān (1/129), al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr (1/352), al-Mughnī (1/288), Zād al-Maʿād (1/194), Sharḥ Ibn Zāḥim (1/88).