This is comparable to the argument advanced against Mālik concerning semen: people continually experience wet dreams, and semen gets onto their bodies and clothes. If washing it off were obligatory, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, would have commanded it. Yet he never commanded any Muslim to wash semen from either his body or his clothes, whereas he commanded a menstruating woman to wash menstrual blood from her garment. It is well known that semen gets onto people’s clothes more frequently than menstrual blood gets onto women’s clothes. How, then, could he explain this to a menstruating woman while leaving that general ruling unexplained, when delaying clarification beyond the time it is needed is impermissible?

The authentic report that ‘Ā’ishah used to wash semen from his garment does not establish that doing so is obligatory. It is also authentically reported from her that she would rub it off. This is all the more telling given that rubbing it off is established, and that washing may simply be prompted by its unpleasantness. As Sa‘d ibn Abī Waqqās and Ibn ‘Abbās said:

“Remove it from yourself, even with a stalk of idhkhir grass, for it is no different from mucus and spittle.”

If this argument is sound, the same may be said concerning ablution after touching women without desire. As for touching them with desire, whether this requires ablution has long been a matter of juristic interpretation and disagreement. As for touching them without desire, the matter is as you see.

The same applies to bathing to remove major ritual impurity. Mālik’s position, and one of the two positions in Ahmad’s school—indeed, the position transmitted from Ahmad himself—is to follow the Sunnah in this matter. Those who described the Prophet’s ritual bath, may Allah bless him and his family and grant him peace, such as ‘Ā’ishah and Maymūnah, did not report that he washed his body