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yā-ʾayyuhā lladhīna ʾāmanū lā taqrabū ṣ-ṣalāta wa-ʾantum sukārā ḥattā taʿlamū mā taqūlūna wa-lā junuban ʾillā ʿābirī sabīlin ḥattā taghtasilū wa-ʾin kuntum marḍā ʾaw ʿalā safarin ʾaw jāʾa ʾaḥadun minkum mina l-ghāʾiṭi ʾaw lāmastumu n-nisāʾa fa-lam tajidū māʾan fa-tayammamū ṣaʿīdan ṭayyiban fa-msaḥū bi-wujūhikum wa-ʾaydīkum ʾinna llāha kāna ʿafuwwan ghafūran
O you who have faith! Do not approach prayer when you are intoxicated, [not] until you know what you are saying, nor [enter mosques] in the state of ritual impurity until you have washed yourselves, except while passing through. But if you are sick or on a journey, or any of you has come from the toilet, or you have touched women, and you cannot find water, then make your ablution on clean ground and wipe a part of your faces and your hands. Indeed Allah is all-excusing, all-forgiving.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah An-Nisa', Verse 43
43. "O' you who have Faith! do not approach prayer when you are intoxicated, until you know what you say, nor when you are polluted - unless you be passing through - until you wash yourselves. And if you are ill or on a journey, or one of you come from privy or you have touched the women and you cannot find water, then betake yourselves to pure earth then wipe your faces and your hands; verily Allah is Pardoning, Forgiving."
A Few Legal Ordinances
The following Islamic legal ordinances can be extracted from the above-mentioned verse:
1. Canonical prayers are invalid when the person is intoxicated. The holy verse says:
The reason of it, of course, is clear, because 'prayer' is the talk and invocation of the servant with Allah and the action must be performed in an utmost conscious state.
2. The prayer is invalid for the person who is in ritual impurity. So, the Qur'an says that you should not approach prayer when you are polluted:
Next to that, it has stated an exception for this ordinance. It says:
In this state establishing prayer is permissible on the condition of dry ablution, which will be dealt with in the following.
3. The words refer to the allowance of establishing prayer or passing through a mosque after performing a legal bathing, which has been stated by saying:
Dry Ablution for the Excused
Through the next phrase, all religious aspects of dry ablution are stated. At first, it points to the situation in which water is harmful for the health of the body.
Then, it continues saying:
And, when in this situation, there is not water for ablution:
In this condition, you must have recourse to dust:
In the next sentence, it has stated the style of having recourse to dust. It says:
At the end of the verse, the Qur'an points to this fact that this ordinance is a kind of facilitation and discount for you, since: