its considerable amount, according to unanimous agreement within the school.
Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī and their followers, however, hold that such discharge does not invalidate ablution. Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn adopted this view as well, arguing that there is no explicit text on the matter and that it cannot be soundly analogized to what exits through the two private passages. Rather, it resembles saliva or phlegm, and the default ruling is that one’s state of purity endures until evidence establishes otherwise. Our own teacher, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī, preferred the same position, and the earlier discussion has already reviewed the differing opinions.
4 – The earlier report from ʿĀʾishah stating that nose-bleeding, vomiting, regurgitation, and similar discharges from elsewhere than the two passages nullify ablution is weak. When weighed against the hadith presently under discussion, it cannot override it—especially since this hadith affirms a foundational rule: the baseline is the continuance of ritual purity.
5 – Cupping is a form of treatment. Al-Bukhārī (5680) records from Ibn ʿAbbās that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Healing is found in three things: a drink of honey, the incision of a cupper, and cauterization with fire.”
Ibn al-Qayyim comments: When an illness is hot in nature, we treat it by letting blood through venesection or cupping, for that expels the harmful matter and cools the temperament. The narration therefore recommends seeking medical treatment in general and cupping in particular, and indicates that it should be performed on the spot dictated by the condition.
6 – The recommendation to seek treatment. Muslim (2204) narrates from Jābir that the Prophet ﷺ said: “For every disease there is a remedy. When the correct remedy meets the disease, the patient will recover by Allah’s permission.”
Likewise, in the Musnad of Imām Aḥmad (17987) it is related from Usāmah ibn Sharīk that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Servants of Allah, seek medical treatment, for Allah has not created a disease without also creating its cure.”
After citing these narrations, Ibn al-Qayyim notes that they encompass causes and effects and refute those who deny them. These sound hadiths command seeking treatment and show that it in no way conflicts with reliance on Allah.
Accordingly, the Prophet’s ﷺ practice was to treat his own ailments and to instruct any of his family or Companions who fell ill to do likewise.