Bir Buda'ah: The Well That Settled the Water Question

Bir Buda'ah was a large well in Madinah, and the hadith attached to it settled a question that comes up in every Muslim's life a hundred times: when is water still clean enough to use?

The question somebody asked

The well sat where rubbish washed into it. The narration is blunt about what people said went in: cloths, dead animals, filth.

Somebody asked the Prophet ﷺ directly whether you could perform wudu from a well like that.

The answer

He said: water is pure; nothing makes it impure.

The report is in Sunan Abi Dawud, Sunan al-Nasa'i, Sunan al-Tirmidhi and Musnad Ahmad. It is not in Bukhari or Muslim, and hadith scholars have discussed its chain at length. Imam Ahmad and Ibn al-Jarud declared it sahih, and it is accepted and acted upon across the schools.

So: a strong, widely accepted report, from the Sunan collections rather than the two Sahihs. That is the accurate way to describe it, and it is stronger than most things you will be told at a Ziyarat site.

What it does not mean

This is where people go wrong, so it is worth being careful.

The hadith does not mean that any water is usable no matter what is in it. Scholars did not read it that way.

Imam Malik and others understood it as applying to large bodies of water like this well, where impurities do not change the water. The general principle across the schools is that water stays pure unless its colour, taste or smell changes because of what fell into it.

Buda'ah was a big well with a lot of water in it. That is the point of naming it in the question.

Why this is one of the most useful hadith you will read

Because of what it prevents.

Without it, a person could spend their life anxious about wudu: about a tap that might have splashed, a bucket that might have been used for something else, a bathroom floor. Some people do live like that, and it is a heavy way to live.

The default the Prophet ﷺ set is the opposite. Water is pure. The burden of proof sits on the thing claiming otherwise, and the test is whether you can see, taste or smell the difference.

If you are travelling and worrying about the water in an old bathroom or a roadside mosque, this is the hadith for you.

The well today

Bir Buda'ah was in the quarter of the Banu Sa'idah in Madinah.

We could not verify a preserved, marked or accessible site, and we are not going to send you looking for one. Madinah has been rebuilt many times, and most of the smaller wells went the way of Bir Aris.

The wells you can actually see are Bir Rumah, which still pumps, and Bir Ghars, which is preserved in a walled enclosure.

Is visiting part of Hajj or Umrah?

No. Not a rite of either, and no virtue is reported in the water of Buda'ah itself.

Related

• Bir Rumah — the well you should actually visit.
• Bir Ghars — preserved and accessible.
• Bir Aris — and why it is no longer there.
• Ihram guide — including the practical side of wudu on the road.

Getting there

Madinah's historic sites are scattered across the city, and reaching them one taxi at a time turns a short list into a whole morning. Our Madinah Ziyarat private car covers the round on one fixed fare for the whole vehicle with the driver waiting at every stop, and the Madinah Ziyarat tour is the guided version. For arrival, the Madinah airport transfer has fixed fares.

Accuracy note

The report that the Prophet ﷺ was asked about performing ablution from the well of Buda'ah, into which refuse was said to be thrown, and answered that water is pure and nothing makes it impure, is recorded in Sunan Abi Dawud, Sunan al-Nasa'i, Sunan al-Tirmidhi and Musnad Ahmad. It is not in Sahih al-Bukhari or Sahih Muslim; hadith scholars have discussed its chain, and Imam Ahmad and Ibn al-Jarud declared it sahih. Imam Malik and others understood it as applying to large bodies of water such as this well, in which impurities do not cause a change; the general principle across the schools is that water remains pure unless its colour, taste or smell is altered by what has entered it. The well stood in the quarter of the Banu Sa'idah in Madinah. We could not verify a preserved, marked or accessible site today and have not directed readers to one. No virtue is reported in the water of Buda'ah itself, and visiting is not a rite of Hajj or Umrah. This page summarises the scholarly position and is not a fatwa; ask a qualified scholar about a specific case. Content verified August 2026. Correction? Tell us.