Another example concerns ritual purification. Mālik held that ablution is required after touching the penis or touching women with desire, but not after laughing aloud during prayer, touching women without desire, an unusual discharge from either of the two private passages, or an impure discharge from elsewhere in the body. Abū Hanīfah held that it is required after laughing aloud during prayer and after any impure discharge from either of the two private passages, but not after touching the penis.

It is well known that the hadiths establishing that touching the penis invalidates ablution are more firmly established and better known than those concerning laughter. No one transmitted any of the latter in the Sunan collections; hadith scholars regard them as weak reports in which a Successor narrates directly from the Prophet. Thus, no hadith scholar held that laughing aloud requires ablution, knowing that no authentic report establishes this.

There are two approaches to ablution after touching the penis. Some regard it as a purely devotional requirement whose rationale is not understood; thus, it would not be far removed from established principles, like ablution after laughing aloud during prayer. Others do not regard it as purely devotional; on that understanding, its basis is clearer and stronger.

As for touching women, there are three well-known positions: Abū Hanīfah’s position is that it never requires ablution; and the position of Mālik and the people of Medina—which is also the well-known position reported from