The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) taught us the Sunnahs of purifying and cleansing ourselves from urine and stools when we relieve ourselves by using whatever is available of that which may be used to cleanse and purify. In this hadith, the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him explains that it is acceptable to clean oneself with pebbles (istijmar) after relieving oneself. After he had relieved himself – and the word used originally refers to low-lying land, then was used to refer to relieving oneself because the one who relieves himself looks for low-lying land in which to conceal himself from the eyes of other people – he instructed Ibn Mas‘ud (may Allah be pleased with him) to bring him three pebbles with which to clean himself. Ibn Mas‘ud brought him two pebbles, but he could not find a third, so he brought a piece of dried dung; it was said that the word used in the original Arabic refers specifically to the dung of horses, mules and donkeys. But the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) rejected it and said: This is unclean. In other words, dried dung is impure, or it is not permissible to use it. In this hadith, we see that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) cleaned himself (instinja’) with two pebbles only. It was narrated by Muslim, from Salman al-Farisi (may Allah be pleased with him), that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “No one of you should clean himself with fewer than three pebbles.” We may reconcile between the reports by noting that using three is recommended in order to be on the safe side and ensure that cleaning oneself is done properly, and to use an odd number, because he said, “Whoever cleans himself with pebbles, let him use an odd number.” But if someone is unable to find three pebbles, then using two is sufficient..