of meat in the absolute sense. Had such a report come from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ himself, we would still be obliged to interpret it as referring to meat other than camel in order to avert a conflict. How much more so when the report is not from him ﷺ at all: interpreting it as other than camel meat becomes even more incumbent, so that the Companions’ actions are understood as conforming to the law, not opposing it.

For that reason al-Ṭaḥāwī and al-Bayhaqī placed these narrations under the heading “Ablution after eating food that has been exposed to fire,” and al-Bayhaqī did not cite them in the chapter “Ablution after eating camel meat.” Instead, in that chapter he wrote:

“We have transmitted from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and Ibn ʿAbbās that ablution is required for what exits the body, not for what enters it. They said this specifically regarding the omission of ablution for food that had been touched by fire.”

Al-Bayhaqī then related with his chain that Ibn Masʿūd once ate camel meat and did not perform ablution, after which he commented, “This isnād is broken and the report is merely mauqūf, and on the strength of such a report one does not abandon what is soundly established from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.”

I add: this is all the more compelling because the opposite practice is authentically reported from the Companions themselves. Jābir ibn Samurah—may Allah be pleased with him—said, “We used to perform ablution after eating camel meat but not after eating mutton.” Ibn Abī Shaybah recorded it in his Muṣannaf 1/46 with a sound chain.