Tayammum is a concession that Allah (may He be exalted) has prescribed for His slaves when water is not available or it is not possible to use it, so as to make things easy for them, as it removes impurity (hadath) and makes it permissible to offer the prayer and do other acts of worship. In this hadith, the Tabi‘i ‘Abdul Rahman ibn Abza narrates that a man from the desert – as mentioned in the report of ‘Abdul Razzaq – came to ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) and told him that he had become junub, but he could not find any water with which to do ghusl to cleanse himself from janabah. The word janabah refers to anyone who emits maniy (semen) or has intercourse; it is so called because he must avoid (ijtinab) prayer and other acts of worship until he has purified himself from it. The response of ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), according to a report narrated by Muslim, was to say: Do not pray. He told him not to pray until he could find water. According to a version narrated by Abu Dawud, he said: As for me, I would not pray until I could find water. It is as if ‘Umar thought that he should not pray until he found water with which to purify himself, then he could pray. At this point, ‘Ammar ibn Yasir reminded ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with them) of something that had happened to both of them, as he said: O Commander of the Faithful, do you not remember when you and I were on a journey? According to a report narrated by Muslim, he said: …and we became junub. They both became junub whilst they were on a journey, and they could not find any water. As for ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), he refrained from praying, because he expected to reach water before the time for the prayer ended, or because he believed that tayammum was only valid in the case of minor impurity, not major impurity (janabah). As for ‘Ammar (may Allah be pleased with him), he drew an analogy between major impurity and minor impurity, and therefore he rolled in the dust in order to remove the major impurity. It is as if, because he believed that tayammum could be an alternative for wudu’ and it is done in a similar manner to it, he thought that tayammum could also be done in a manner similar to ghusl. Then he prayed after that. When he returned to Madinah, he told the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) about that, and the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “It would have been sufficient for you to do like this,” then he patted the ground with his hands and blew onto them, to reduce the dust, then he wiped his face and hands with them. Thus he taught him how to do tayammum, and he taught him that it is valid for both major impurity (janabah) and minor impurity. In this hadith, we see that the Sahabah strove to work out issues (ijtihad) at the time of the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him). It also indicates that making analogies (qiyas) is valid..