Points derived from the hadith:
1 – The outward purport of the report is that kissing or touching a woman does not invalidate wudu; this is the default ruling, and the hadith simply re-affirms that no new ablution is required.
2 – The hadith, however, seems to conflict with the noble verse: “or you have touched women” (Q 4:43). Actual touch is effected by the hand, and even if the verse might be taken to allude to intercourse, the recitation “aw lāmastum” plainly denotes mere manual contact. The basic principle is that both Qurʾanic readings share the same meaning.
3 – It is preferable to understand the hadith as referring to a kiss unaccompanied by desire—a kiss of affection and mercy. Contact of this sort has been deemed not to break wudu, as evidenced by the narration: “ʿĀʾishah was lying crosswise in the Prophet’s place of prayer; when he wished to prostrate he would tap her in the dark so that she might draw in her legs,” recorded by al-Bukhārī (375) and Muslim (512). Touch itself is not a nullifier; it is only a circumstance that may lead to the emission of something that does nullify. Therefore ordinary, desire-free contact remains upon its original ruling of not nullifying wudu.
4 – Even if the hadith were accepted as sound, it would still be interpreted in the foregoing manner; otherwise, it is weak. Al-Bukhārī deemed it weak, the authors of the Sunan pointed out a hidden defect, Ibn Ḥazm said that nothing in this chapter is authentic, and Ibn Ḥajar judged the report defective.

Scholarly disagreement:
The jurists have differed on whether touch invalidates wudu:
• The Hanafis hold that it never does. Among their proofs are the present hadith and the report of ʿĀʾishah lying across the Prophet’s prayer-space, his nudging her, and his continuing the prayer.
• Mālik maintained that wudu is nullified when a person who is already in wudu and has reached puberty touches, with sensual pleasure, someone whom he or she normally finds pleasurable.
• Imām al-Shāfiʿī held that the mere skin-to-skin contact of a man with a woman, or a woman