Miftah-ul-Janna (Booklet for way to Paradise)

There are five obligatory essentials to be fulfilled when making
a tayammum:
1– To make a niyyat. 2– To make a masah. 3– For the object to
be used for making a tayammum to be of earthen matter. If it is not
something made of earth, there will have to be earth dust on it. 4–
The earthen object or the dust on it to be used for a tayammum has
to be clean. 5– To be actually or virtually unable to use water (for
making an ablution). [Weakness after a certain illness is an ’udhr
as well, (in which case you may make a tayammum instead of
making an ablution by using water.) So is the case with weakness
on account of old age. Another convenience to be utilized by such
people is that they may perform their namâz sitting.]
There are seven sunnats to be performed when making a
tayammum:
1– To say the Basmala, (which means to say, “Bismillâh-ir-
Rahmân ir-Rahîm,” when beginning to make a tayammum.) 2– To
strike the (palms of the) hands (gently) against clean soil. 3– To
rub the object against which you strike your hands (gently) by
moving your hands forward and backward on it once. 4– To open
the fingers. 5– To shake off the dust on the hands by striking them
against each other. 6– To make masah on the face first. 7– To make
masah on the entire forearms including the elbows.
There are four conditions to be fulfilled for looking for water.
1– For your location to be inhabited.
2– If you are informed of the existence of water.
3– If you are firmly convinced that there is water.
4– If you are not at a frightful place.
If a person has found water and yet the place of the water is
farther than a mile away, then it will be permissible (for that
person) to make a tayammum (instead of going there to make an
ablution). If the distance is shorter than a mile and it is early
enough so that the prayer time will not be over, it will not be
permissible to make a tayammum. [One mile is a distance of four
thousand zrâ’, i.e. 0.48x4000=1920 metres in the Hanafî Madhhab.]
On the other hand, if he looks for water, fails to find it, makes
a tayammum and performs the namâz, and thereafter sees water,
will he have to reperform his namâz? This is a question at issue
(among Islamic scholars). The conclusive solution is that he will
not have to reperform the namâz that he has performed.
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