50 – Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: “The Prophet ﷺ saw a man, and on his foot there was an area the size of a fingernail that the water had not touched. He said, ‘Go back and perfect your wuḍūʾ (ablution).’ ” Related by Abū Dāwūd and al-Nasāʾī (1).

Grade of the ḥadith
The report is ḥasan, although the scholars have differed over its authenticity.

• Abū Dāwūd said: “This ḥadith is unknown from Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim and is narrated only by Ibn Wahb; it has a corroborating report in Muslim (243) that is mawqūf on ʿUmar.”
• Al-Munḏirī remarked: “Its chain contains Baqiyyah ibn al-Walīd, and there is some discussion about him.”
• Imām Aḥmad stated: “Its chain is good (jayyid).” It was judged ṣaḥīḥ by Ibn Khuzaymah, Abū ʿAwānah, and al-Ḍiyāʾ al-Maqdisī, while al-Bayhaqī said: “All of its narrators are reliable and unanimously considered upright.”

It suffices to quote what Ibn al-Qayyim wrote about this ḥadith in Tahdhīb al-Sunan: “Al-Munḏirī and Ibn Ḥazm criticized this ḥadith because it is transmitted through Baqiyyah, and Ibn Ḥazm further claimed that its transmitter is unknown.”

The answer to these two objections is as follows:
First: Baqiyyah is trustworthy, dependable, and a memoriser; the only reservation about him is tadlīs, and when he explicitly states that he heard the ḥadith his narration is authoritative. In this report he has done so.

Second: the objection is invalid, for an unidentified Companion does not harm a ḥadith, since the uprightness of all Companions is established.

The meaning of this ḥadith is further supported by corroborating narrations in al-Bukhārī (165) and Muslim (242) on the authority of