English Translation

Abu al-Mughirah told us, Ma'an ibn Rifa'ah told us, Ali ibn Yazid told me, from al-Qasim Abu Abd al-Rahman, from Abu Umamah al-Bahili, from al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah, who said: The Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, sent me for water. I came to a tent and found in it a bedouin woman. I said, "This is the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, and he wants water for ablution — do you have any water?" She said, "May my father and mother be sacrificed for the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him! By God, neither the sky shades nor the earth carries a soul dearer or more precious to me than his soul, but this water-skin is the hide of a dead animal, and I do not want to make the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, impure with it." I returned to the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, and told him, and he said, "Go back to her; if she has tanned it, then its tanning purifies it." I went back to her and mentioned that to her, and she said, "Yes, by God, I have tanned it." So I brought him water from it. He was that day wearing a Syrian cloak, leather socks, and a head-cover. He put his hands in from under the cloak — due to the narrowness of its sleeves — and performed ablution, wiping over the head-cover and the leather socks.