touched him, he would do the same—washing only the spot, not the whole garment—and he would pray in it.

It was recorded by Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasāʾī, and al-Dārmī on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān, who said: “Jābir ibn Ṣubh narrated to me; I heard Khallās ibn ʿAmr say: I heard ʿĀʾishah relate it.”

This isnād is sound and linked by direct audition; every transmitter in it is trustworthy and is cited by al-Bukhārī and Muslim, except Jābir ibn Ṣubh—spelled with a dotless ḥāʾ and a silent bāʾ—whom Ibn Maʿīn declared reliable, and whom al-Ḥāfiẓ in al-Taqrīb graded as truthful.

Aḥmad also transmitted the report through another route in abridged form: “He used to pray in the garment in which he had marital relations.” He narrated it through Bard ibn Sinān from Sulaymān ibn Mūsā, from her. Its narrators are trustworthy, yet the link between Sulaymān and ʿĀʾishah is broken, and more than sixty years separate their deaths.

These ḥadiths, together with those cited earlier under the first issue, show that purifying one’s body and clothes from impurity is obligatory. The scholars have differed over the matter: the Shāfiʿīs hold that such removal is a condition for the validity of the prayer. Al-Nawawī said in al-Majmūʿ:

“This is also the view of Abū Ḥanīfah, Aḥmad, and the majority of early and later scholars. Concerning Mālik, there are three reports on removing impurity: the soundest and most famous is that if a person prays while knowingly carrying impurity, his prayer is invalid; but if he was ignorant or…”