Wudu and Ghusl with a Splint

I was asked a question, via the Contact Us form of the blog, about doing ghusl or wuḍū’ when you have a splint on. This question was asked many times to the Ahl al-Bayt (عليهم السلام), and here is a Ṣaḥīḥ (Authentic)[1] ḥadīth of their answer. The Arabic word used in the ḥadīth for a splint is al-Jabā’ir, I have quoted Ibn Mundhūr’s Lisān al-`Arab, in the footnote, where he discusses what the word means.

مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ يَعْقُوبَ عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ يَحْيَى عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ الْحُسَيْنِ عَنْ صَفْوَانَ بْنِ يَحْيَى عَنْ عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ بْنِ الْحَجَّاجِ قَالَ سَأَلْتُ أَبَا الْحَسَنِ ع عَنِ الْكَسِيرِ يَكُونُ عَلَيْهِ الْجَبَائِرُ أَوْ تَكُونُ بِهِ الْجِرَاحَةُ كَيْفَ يَصْنَعُ بِالْوُضُوءِ وَ عِنْدَ غُسْلِ الْجَنَابَةِ وَ عِنْدَ غُسْلِ الْجُمُعَةِ قَالَ «يَغْسِلُ مَا وَصَلَ إِلَيْهِ الْغُسْلُ مِمَّا ظَهَرَ مِمَّا لَيْسَ عَلَيْهِ الْجَبَائِرُ وَ يَدَعُ مَا سِوَى ذَلِكَ مِمَّا لَا يَسْتَطِيعُ غَسْلَهُ وَ لَا يَنْزِعُ الْجَبَائِرَ وَ لَا يَعْبَثُ بِجِرَاحَتِهِ»

From `Abd al-Rahmān b. al-Ḥajjāj said, I asked Abā al-Ḥasan (عليه السلام) about broken (limb) and he (places) upon it a jabā’ir[2]or he does on it an wound, how can he perform wudū’, ghusl al-Janābah, or ghusl al-Jumu`ah. He (عليه السلام): “He washes what reaches him of which is apparent, and he does not (wash what) the jabā’ir is upon, and he should leave what is apart from that of which he is not able to wash, and he should not remove the jabā’ir, and he should not play with his injury”[3]

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[1] al-Majlisī says this ḥadīth is Ṣaḥīḥ (Authentic) (See: al-Majlisī, Milādh al-Akhyār, vol. 3, pg. 53)

[2] According to Arabic dictionaries, al-Jabā’ir is like a cast or splint. Ibn Mundhūr in his famous lexicon dictionary says about al-Jabā’ir (الْجَبَائِرُ):

العيدان التي تشدّها على العظم لتَجْبُرَه بها على استواء
The stick which tightens on the bone to fix him by normalizing/leveling it.

الذي يجبر العظام المكسورة

Which fixes broken bones

 (See: Ibn Mundhūr, Lisān al-`Arab, vol. 4, pg. 155)

[3] al-Ṭūsī, Tahdhīb al-Aḥkām, vol. 1, ch. 16, pg. 362

Bibliography

al-Majlisī. Milādh al-Akhyār. 1st. 16 vols. Qum: Maktabah Ayatollah al-Mar`ashī al-Najafī, 1406.

al-Ṭūsī. Tahdhīb al-Aḥkām. 4th. 10 vols. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyyah, 1407.

Mundhūr, Ibn. Lisān al-`Arab. Qum: Nashr Adab al-Hawzah, 1405.