Among the matters for which ablution is obligatory:

I say: The author cites here the ḥadith, “No one may touch the Qur’an except the one who is ṭāhir,” through two separate chains, and then comments:

“This ḥadith indicates that it is impermissible to touch the muṣḥaf except for someone who is ṭāhir. Yet the word ṭāhir is polysemous. It can refer to a person free of major ritual impurity, to one free of minor ritual impurity, to a believer in general, or to someone whose body carries no physical filth. To restrict it to any single sense requires corroborating evidence. Consequently, the ḥadith is not an unequivocal text prohibiting a person in minor impurity from touching the muṣḥaf.”

I say: The author has abridged this passage from al-Shawkānī’s discussion of the ḥadith in Nayl al-Awṭār 1/180–181. His reasoning is sound and unobjectionable, save for his final remark: “Thus the ḥadith is not an explicit proof for forbidding the person in minor impurity from touching the muṣḥaf.” That sentence is the author’s own; its import is that the ḥadith is an explicit proof against a person in major impurity. But this does not agree with the tenor of his previous words, for he has just stated, “Identifying a specific meaning requires contextual evidence.” Now, however, he treats the ḥadith as applying to one in major impurity—with no evidence adduced.

The view that seems closer to the truth—Allah knows best—is that ṭāhir here means “believer,” whether he be in major or minor impurity, menstruating, or even carrying physical filth on his body, because of the Prophet’s statement, “The believer is never impure,” which is agreed upon as authentic. The intent is to prevent a polytheist from handling the muṣḥaf. This is comparable to the ḥadith, “He forbade travelling with the Qur’an to enemy territory,” which is likewise agreed upon. Al-Shawkānī has expanded on this issue at length in the aforementioned work; consult it if you wish to delve deeper.

Finally, I have traced this ḥadith through several lines of transmission in Irwā’ al-Ghalīl 122; whoever desires may refer to it there.