- A female touching its vulva.
There are two cases in which ablution is not invalidated:
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A male touching its vulva.
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A female touching its penis . . .
A man touching a woman with desire . . .
His statement, “A man touching a woman with desire”: this is the fifth of the things that invalidate ablution.
The pronoun in his statement, “a man touching,” refers to the man; that is, a man touching a woman with desire. Its apparent wording is general, indicating no distinction between young and old, sane and insane, free person and slave.
The author did not restrict touching to the hand, so the ruling is general: if he touches her with desire by any part of his body, his ablution is invalidated.
The preposition in the phrase “with desire” denotes accompaniment; that is, touching accompanied by desire.
Some express it instead as “for desire,” using a preposition denoting causation; that is, a touch motivated by desire.
The term “woman” normally refers to an adult female, but adulthood is not a condition here. Some scholars, however, restricted it to one who has reached seven years of age, whether the one touching or the one touched. This is open to question, because a child of seven generally knows nothing of such matters. Therefore, some scholars restricted it to one whom people of the same sex would desire.