Overall meaning : Almighty Allah instructs His believing servants, when they intend to pray, to wash their faces and their hands and forearms from the tips of their fingers to the elbows, pass their wet hands lightly over their heads and wash their feet from the tips of their toes up to the ankles. If they are in a state of major ritual impurity, they should purify themselves by taking a bath before performing the prayer. But if they are too ill to use water, or on a journey, or have relieved themselves or have had intimate contact with their spouses and they cannot find any water with which to purify themselves, they may have recourse to pure earth and perform dry ablution (tayammum), by striking both hands on it and then wiping their faces and hands with it. He states that He has laid down such laws in order not to cause them any inconvenience or difficulty, as He only intends to purify them externally through the minor and major ritual ablutions and dry ablution and internally by forgiving their sins, and to complete His favour upon them by clarifying and making His laws easy for them to observe so that they make give thanks.