(1) Al-Bazzar records the report in his Musnad: “Ismail b. Yaqub b. Sabih narrated to us; Muhammad b. Musa b. Ayyun narrated to us; my father narrated to us; from Abd al-Karim al-Jazari; from Ata; from Aisha….” Zayla‘i observes in Nasb al-Raya 1/74 that Abd al-Karim is cited by Malik in the Muwatta, by the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) and others, and that Ibn Ma‘in, Abu Hatim, Abu Zur‘a and additional critics deemed him reliable. Musa b. Ayyun is likewise well-known; Abu Zur‘a and Abu Hatim graded him trustworthy and Muslim includes his narrations. His father is also recognised: Bukhari transmits from him, al-Nasa’i narrates from and approves him, Abu Awana al-Isfarayini reports from him, Ibn Khuzayma inserts him in his Sahih, and Ibn Hibban lists him among the thiqat (trustworthy transmitters). Ibn Hajar states in al-Diraya, p. 20: “All the men in the chain are reliable.” Abd al-Haqq al-Ishbili adds: “I know of no defect that would require rejecting it.” The only reservation is Ibn Ma‘in’s remark that “the hadith of Abd al-Karim from Ata is weak because it is not preserved,” yet an isolated reliable narrator does not harm a hadith. The same tradition is also reported by Abu Dawud (179), al-Tirmidhi (86), Ibn Majah (502), Ahmad 6/210, al-Tabari (9630) and others, through the chain of al-A‘mash → Habib b. Abi Thabit → Urwa → Aisha, stating that the Prophet kissed one of his wives then went out to the prayer without renewing wudu (ablution). Urwa remarked, “Who else could she be but you?”—and she laughed. All the transmitters in this route are trustworthy, and Habib b. Abi Thabit is corroborated by Hisham b. Urwa in the version preserved by al-Darqutni 1/50; accordingly, the hadith is authentic. On the basis of this report, a group of scholars held that touching a woman does not nullify wudu. This view is related from Ibn Abbas, adopted by al-Hasan, al-Thawri and the Hanafi jurists. They interpret the Qur’anic phrase aw lamastum al-nisa’ (“or you have touched women,” Q 4:43) as referring specifically to sexual intercourse, not to any other form of physical contact.