Nasai

39. Commentary:

➊ Cleansing from impurity is generally achieved with water or earth (soil), because both are, according to the Shariah and customary practice, purifying agents. In addition to cleansing, they also remove bad odor. Other things neither provide complete cleansing nor do they eliminate odor.

➋ Bone does not have the capacity to absorb (impurity); rather, it is hard, therefore it cannot provide proper cleansing. As for dung or manure, they themselves are impure or like impurity. How, then, can cleansing be achieved with them? Furthermore, bone and manure are also the food of the jinn and their animals, so it is prohibited to defile them with filth; this is explicitly stated in the ahadith.

Hadith Commentary: Benefits and Issues:
The vision of Allah, exalted is He, is the greatest blessing with which the inhabitants of Paradise will be honored. If a person reflects with sound intellect and upright nature, he will certainly feel the desire and longing for this greatest blessing: that the Being who granted man existence, life, the means and resources to live, and countless blessings—and in Paradise, blessings millions of times greater than these will be granted—he should be able to see his Benefactor and Generous Lord. If he is never granted this vision, then surely there will remain a great deficiency and thirst in his happiness, joy, and delight. Allah, exalted is He, will not deprive the people of Paradise of any of their wishes or desires; therefore, they will be filled with this supreme blessing, for which there is no equal, and they will not be deprived of it like the disbelievers and deniers.

English Commentary:
1:
The correct view is that both bones and dung were declared by the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) as provisions for the jinn, and those narrations are weak in which it is stated that bones are for the jinn and dung is the provision for their animals (see Da‘ifah no. 1038).

2:
Imam Tirmidhi, with this chain, has himself brought the lengthy hadith to which he alluded, in his Tafsir of Surah Al-Ahqaf (no. 3258). “And this hadith is also in Muslim (no. 450).” In it, there is clear mention that, upon being questioned, Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud (radi Allahu anhu) denied being present on the “Night of the Jinn.” The correct view is that all narrations regarding Ibn Mas‘ud (radi Allahu anhu) being present on that “Night of the Jinn” are weak—whether it is the narration in which the jinn asked about their food, or the one in which ablution (wudu) with nabidh is mentioned. However, on two or three other occasions, on nights when there was a meeting with the jinn, he was with the Noble Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) (see: Al-Kawkab ad-Durri fi Sharh at-Tirmidhi).

3:
The difference between the narrations of Hafs ibn Ghiyath and Isma‘il ibn Ibrahim is that, according to Hafs’s narration, the hadith “Do not cleanse yourselves with...” is connected and marfu‘ (attributed directly to the Prophet), whereas according to Isma‘il’s narration, it becomes a mursal hadith of ash-Sha‘bi (i.e., with a missing link), and many other trustworthy narrators have followed Isma‘il in this irsal (omission). A mursal hadith is weak. However, in Sahih al-Bukhari, the narration of Abu Hurayrah (radi Allahu anhu), which the author has mentioned, is its authentic corroboration. Furthermore, the original hadith is established by other supporting evidences as well.

Explanation:
Note:
(For a detailed discussion on this hadith, see: (al-Da‘ifa No. 1038)