Mālik—may Allah have mercy on him.
The second possibility is that the ruling was attached to these matters because they are impure substances that leave the body; since ablution is an act of purification, it is impurity that affects purification.
The third possibility is that the ruling was likewise attached to them on account of their emerging from the two passages. According to the last two views, therefore, the command to perform ablution for the unanimously agreed-upon nullifiers is a case of a specific text that was meant to carry a general application. For Mālik and his companions, however, it remains a specific text that must be confined to its own specificity.
Al-Shāfiʿī and Abū Ḥanīfah agree that the directive belongs to the type of specific wording intended for a general rule, yet they differ as to what general rule is actually intended. Mālik supports his school by arguing that the default is to keep a specific text upon its literal specificity unless other evidence indicates otherwise. Al-Shāfiʿī counters that what is meant is the outlet, not the substance itself, for they all agree that ablution is obligatory when wind exits from below and not obligatory when it exits from above, even though both are essentially the same entity; the only difference is the two outlets. This, he says, points to the outlet being decisive—an inference that is weak, because the two kinds of wind differ in both character and odor.
Abū Ḥanīfah argues that what is intended is any impure matter that exits, for impurity affects purification. Although this is a formal (ḥukmī) purity, it resembles the tangible removal of filth. He adduces the ḥadīth of Thawbān: “The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, vomited and then performed ablution,” together with the reports that ʿUmar and Ibn ʿUmar—may Allah be pleased with them—required ablution after a nosebleed, and the report that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, instructed the woman with continuous bleeding (mustahāḍah) to perform ablution for every prayer. From all this Abū Ḥanīfah understands that the ruling concerns any impure discharge.
Al-Shāfiʿī and Abū Ḥanīfah nonetheless agree that ablution is obligatory for the nullifiers on which there is consensus even when they occur because of illness, since the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, ordered the mustahāḍah to perform ablution for each prayer, and chronic bleeding is an illness.
As for Mālik, he held that illness introduces a concession here, drawing an analogy with another report in which the mustahāḍah was commanded only to perform a single full bath. The ḥadīth of Fāṭimah bint Abī Ḥubaysh is unanimously authentic, yet the additional wording—“perform ablution for every prayer”—is disputed; nevertheless Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr declared this addition sound, by analogy with a person whose wound bleeds continuously, such as the report that ʿUmar—may Allah be pleased with him—prayed while his wound was gushing blood.