The prohibition of purification with nabidh

Sayyiduna Amr bin Bujdan (may Allah have mercy on him) said that he heard Sayyiduna Abu Dharr (may Allah be pleased with him); he mentioned his own story and narrated the hadith: "Clean earth is water for the Muslim, even for ten years (if he does not find water). When he finds water, he should pour water over his body, for that is indeed better for him."

It is narrated from Sayyidah Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Every drink that intoxicates is unlawful."

Ibn Jurayj reported from Ata (may Allah have mercy on him) that he disliked performing ablution with milk and nabidh (date drink), and he said: Performing tayammum is more preferable to me than that.

Abu Khaldah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: I asked Abu al-Aliyah (may Allah have mercy on him) about a person in a state of major impurity (janabah) who has no water but has nabidh (date drink): may he take a ritual bath with it? He said: No!

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that on the Night of the Jinn, two jinn stayed behind. Al-Ramadi said: I think Abd al-Razzaq narrated that the two jinn said: We wish to attend the prayer with you (peace and blessings be upon him). When the time of prayer came, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to me: "Do you have water for ablution?" I said: No, I have nabidh in a water vessel. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "'Tamratun tayyibatun wa ma'un tahur' (The date is pure and the water is also pure)." So he (peace and blessings be upon him) performed ablution (with that nabidh).

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came to us and said: "I have been commanded to recite (the Qur'an) to your brothers among the jinn. Let one of you come with me, but let not anyone come who has even a mustard seed's weight of arrogance in his heart." I went with him, and I had a vessel of water (a water-skin) with me. When we reached (the place), he (peace and blessings be upon him) drew a line around me and said: "Do not leave this circle; if you leave this circle, we will not see each other until the Day of Resurrection." Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Then he went on until he was hidden from my sight, and I remained standing there until dawn broke. Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) came and said: "I see you standing (that is, why did you not sit down)?" I said: I feared that I might leave this circle, so I did not sit down. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Had you left the circle, we would not have seen each other until the Day of Resurrection." Then he said: "Do you have water?" I said: No. He (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: "What is in the vessel (water-skin)?" I said: Nabidh. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "'Tamratun hulwatun wa ma'un tayyib' (A sweet date and pure water)." Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) performed ablution and prayed. When he had finished the prayer, two persons from among the jinn came and asked for something. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Did I not command for you and your people that which is good for you?" One of them said: Certainly, but we wished to join you (peace and blessings be upon him) in the prayer. He (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: "From which tribe are you?" They said: From Nasibin. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "These two and their people have succeeded." Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) made bones and dung lawful food for them, and forbade us from cleaning ourselves (istinja) with bones and dung.
Imam Muhammad bin Isma'il al-Bukhari (may Allah have mercy on him) said: In the hadith of Ibn Mas'ud containing the words that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "'Tamratun tayyibatun wa ma'un tahur' (A pure date and pure water)", the narrator Abu Zayd is majhul (unknown). His meeting with Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) is not established.
Alqamah narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him): I was not with him (peace and blessings be upon him) on that occasion.
Amr bin Murrah said: I asked Abu Ubaydah whether Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) was with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). He said: No.
Abu Ahmad bin Adi (may Allah have mercy on him) said: This hadith revolves around this chain: "from Abu Fazarah, from Abu Zayd, the freed slave of Amr bin Hurayth, from Ibn Mas'ud". Abu Fazarah is a well-known narrator whose name is Rashid bin Kaysan; Abu Zayd, the freed slave of Amr bin Hurayth, is an unknown (majhul) narrator. This hadith is not established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), for it is clearly contrary to the Qur'an.
Shaykh Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) said: This hadith has been narrated "from Hammad bin Salamah, from Ali bin Zayd bin Jud'an, from Abu Rafi', from Ibn Mas'ud", "from Abu Sallam, from so-and-so bin Ghaylan al-Thaqafi, from Ibn Mas'ud" and "from Ibn Lahi'ah, from Qays bin al-Hajjaj, from Hanash, from Ibn Abbas, from Ibn Mas'ud"; Muhammad bin Isa bin Hibban also narrated it from al-Hasan bin Qutaybah, and al-Husayn bin Ubaydullah al-Ijli narrated it, each with his own chain to Ibn Mas'ud. That is, it has been narrated through several routes, but none of these narrations is authentic.
Al-Daraqutni, declaring these chains weak, said: Ali bin Zayd is da'if (weak), and this hadith is not among the compiled works of Hammad bin Salamah; the Thaqafi man who narrated it from Ibn Mas'ud is majhul (unknown), and his name is said to be Amr, or Abdullah bin Amr bin Ghaylan; Ibn Lahi'ah is weak in hadith and his narration is not taken as proof; al-Hasan bin Qutaybah and Muhammad bin Isa are both da'if (weak); and this al-Husayn bin Ubaydullah al-Ijli fabricates hadith and attributes them to trustworthy narrators.
Al-Shaykh (al-Bayhaqi) said: Ibn Mas'ud denied being present with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) on the Night of the Jinn, in the narration of Alqamah from him; his son denied it too, and so did Ibrahim al-Nakha'i.

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) said: I was not with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) on the Night of the Jinn (Laylat al-Jinn), but I would have loved to be with him.

It is narrated from Amir: I asked Sayyiduna Alqamah (may Allah have mercy on him): Was Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) on the "Night of the Jinn"? He said: I asked Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) this very question: Was any of you present with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) on the "Night of the Jinn"? He said: No; rather, what happened was that one night we were with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and found him missing. Then we searched for him (peace and blessings be upon him) in the valleys and mountain passes. We thought: Perhaps he has been carried away (by the jinn), or he has been killed treacherously. We spent that night in great distress. When morning came, he (peace and blessings be upon him) came from the direction of (the cave of) Hira. We said: O Messenger of Allah! We found you missing, so we searched for you a great deal but could not find you. All of us spent the night in great distress. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "A person from among the jinn came to me, so I went with him and recited the Qur'an to them." Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) took us along and showed us their traces and the traces of their fires. They (the jinn) had asked him for provision, and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Every bone over which the name of Allah has been mentioned will fall into your hands as full of meat as it can be, and every piece of dung is fodder for your animals." Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Do not clean yourselves (istinja) with these two (bone and dung), for they are the food of your (jinn) brothers."

It is narrated from Amr bin Murrah (may Allah have mercy on him): I asked Abu Ubaydah bin Abdullah (may Allah have mercy on him): Was Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) on the Night of the Jinn? He said: No. Then I asked Ibrahim (may Allah have mercy on him), and he said: I wish our companion had been with him.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Nabidh is (water for) ablution for the one who does not find water."

Mubashshir narrated it to us with the same chain, like it, as mawquf (not attributed to the Prophet).
Al-Shaykh (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Al-Harith reported from Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) that he (may Allah be pleased with him) saw no harm in performing ablution with nabidh.
It is narrated from Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him): There is no harm in performing ablution with nabidh.
There is disagreement over this hadith from al-Musayyab bin Wadih, and he erred in it in two places: in mentioning Ibn Abbas and in mentioning the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him); what is preserved is that it is the saying of Ikrimah, not marfu' (not attributed to the Prophet), and al-Musayyab made many errors. Abdullah bin Muharrar, who narrated it as the saying of Ibn Abbas, is matruk (abandoned); it was also narrated with a weak chain from Aban bin Abi Ayyash as marfu', and Aban is matruk. Al-Daraqutni said: What is preserved is that it is the saying of Ikrimah, attributed neither to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) nor to Ibn Abbas. Abdullah bin Maysarah is matruk, al-Harith al-A'war is da'if (weak), and al-Hajjaj bin Artah is not taken as proof.

It is narrated from Sayyidah Aishah al-Siddiqah (may Allah be pleased with her): We used to prepare nabidh for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in a water-skin whose mouth was tied at the top, and which had three spouts that were hung up. We would prepare the nabidh for him (peace and blessings be upon him) in the morning and he (peace and blessings be upon him) would drink it in the evening, and when we prepared the nabidh in the evening he (peace and blessings be upon him) would drink it in the morning.
(b) A similar narration is reported from Abd al-Wahhab al-Thaqafi.

It is narrated from Abu al-Aliyah (may Allah have mercy on him): As for this foul nabidh of yours, we hold that (the nabidh of old) was only water into which dates were put, and it would become sweet.