453 – On the authority of Asmāʾ bint ʿUmays (may Allah be pleased with her): “Fāṭimah (may Allah be pleased with her) instructed that ʿAlī (may Allah be pleased with him) should wash her body.” Reported by al-Dāraqutnī ⦗1⦘.

Grade of the report:
This is a ḥasan (good) narration. Al-Talkhīṣ states: al-Bayhaqī transmitted it through an additional route whose chain is sound; Aḥmad and Ibn al-Mundhir relied upon it as evidence; its transmitters are trusted and well-known. It was also recorded by al-Ḥākim, and Ibn Ḥajar deemed it ḥasan.

Points derived from the two reports:

1. It is forbidden for a man to wash a woman’s body and for a woman to wash a man’s body, even when the man is a maḥram for the woman; thus a man may not wash his mother, daughter, or any other female relative who is a maḥram. Al-Mughnī states that this is the opinion of the majority of scholars. Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī permitted it only in cases of necessity, whereas Imām Aḥmad and others considered it a serious matter.

2. The exceptions are: a man may wash his wife, his female slave, and a girl under seven; likewise, a woman may wash her husband, her master, and a boy under seven.

Ibn al-Mundhir said: “All of the scholars whose opinions have reached us agree that a woman may wash a small boy while he is completely unclothed, touch his private parts, and look at them, because his private parts carry no legal weight during his life, and the same ruling applies after his death.”