The Apostle of Allaah ( sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam ) said : Allaah, the Exalted, does not accept the prayer of any of you when you are defiled until you performed ablution.

The key to prayer is purification; its beginning is takbir and its end is taslim.

AbuGhutayf al-Hudhali reported: I was in the company of Ibn Umar. When the call was made for the noon (zuhr) prayer, he performed ablution and said the prayer. When the call for the afternoon ('asr) prayer was made, he again performed ablution. Thus I asked him (about the reason of performing ablution). He replied: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: For a man who performs ablution in a state of purity, ten virtuous deeds will be recorded (in his favour).

AbuDawud said: This is the tradition narrated by Musaddad, and it is more perfect.

The Prophet (ﷺ), was asked about water (in desert country) and what is frequented by animals and wild beasts. He replied: When there is enough water to fill two pitchers, it bears no impurity.

The Messenger of Allaah (sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam) was asked about water in desert. He then narrated a similar tradition (as mentioned above).

The Apostle of Allaah ( sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam ) said: When there is enough water to fill two pitchers, it does not become impure.

Abu Dawud said : Hammad b. Zaid has narrated this tradition on the authority of 'Asim ( without any reference to the Prophet)

The people asked the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ): Can we perform ablution out of the well of Buda'ah, which is a well into which menstrual clothes, dead dogs and stinking things were thrown? He replied: Water is pure and is not defiled by anything.

I heard that the people asked the Prophet of Allah (ﷺ): Water is brought for you from the well of Buda'ah. It is a well in which dead dogs, menstrual clothes and excrement of people are thrown. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) replied: Verily water is pure and is not defiled by anything.

Abu Dawud said I heard Qutaibah b. Sa'id say: I asked the person in charge of the well of Bud'ah about the depth of the well. He replied: At most the water reaches pubes. Then I asked: Where does it reach when its level goes down ? He replied: Below the private part of the body.

Abu Dawud said: I measured the breadth of the well of Buda'ah with my sheet which I stretched over it. I them measured it with the hand. It measured six cubits in breadth. I then asked the man who opened the door of garden for me and admitted me to it: Has the condition of this well changed from what it had originally been in the past ? He replied: No. I saw the color of water in this well had changed.

One of the wives of the Prophet (ﷺ) took a bath from a large bowl. The Prophet (ﷺ) wanted to perform ablution or take from the water left over. She said to him: O Prophet of Allah, verily I was sexually defiled. The Prophet said: Water not defiled.

The Prophet ( sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam ) said : None amongst you should urinate in stagnant water , and then wash in it.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: None amongst you should urinate in standing water, then wash in it after sexual defilement.

The Prophet (sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam) said: The purification of the utensil belonging to any one of you, after it has been licked by a dog, consists of washing it seven times, using sand in the first instance.

Abu Dawud said : A similar tradition has been narrated by Abu Ayyub and Habib b. al-Shahid on the authority of Muhammad.

"If the cat licks (a utensil), it should be washed once."

The Prophet (sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam) as saying : When a dog licks a (thing contained in a) utensil you must wash it seven times, using earth (sand) for the seventh time.

Abu Dawud said : This tradition has been transmitted by another chain of narrators in which there is no mention of earth.

The Messenger of Allaah (sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam) ordered the killing of the dogs, and then said: Why are they (people) after them (dogs)? and then granted permission (to keep) for hunting and for (the security) of the herd, and said : When the dog licks the utensil wash it seven times, and rub it with earth the eighth time.

Abu Dawud said : Ibn Mughaffal narrated in a similar way.

Kabshah, daughter of Ka'b ibn Malik and wife of Ibn AbuQatadah, reported: AbuQatadah visited (me) and I poured out water for him for ablution. A cat came and drank some of it and he tilted the vessel for it until it drank some of it. Kabshah said: He saw me looking at him; he asked me: Are you surprised, my niece? I said: Yes. He then reported the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) as saying: It is not unclean; it is one of those (males or females) who go round among you.

Dawud ibn Salih ibn Dinar at-Tammar quoted his mother as saying that her mistress sent her with some pudding (harisah) to Aisha who was offering prayer. She made a sign to me to place it down. A cat came and ate some of it, but when Aisha finished her prayer, she ate from the place where the cat had eaten. She stated: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: It is not unclean: it is one of those who go round among you. She added: I saw the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) performing ablution from the water left over by the cat.

I and the Messenger of Allaah ( sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam ) took a bath from one vessel while we were sexually defiled.

My hands and the hands of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) alternated into one vessel while we performed ablution.

The males and females during the time of the Apostle of Allaah ( sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam ) used to perform the ablution from one vessel together.

The wordings "from one vessel" occur in the version of Musaddad.