‘He should wash that spot, then pray.’” Al-Bayhaqī narrated this through ʿĀsim ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Ashjaʿī. Al-Bukhārī said, “His reliability is questionable.” Ibn Hibbān said, “He makes many mistakes.” Al-Dāraqutnī said, “He is not strong.”

The substantive distinction is that ablution involves several parts of the body which, according to them, must be washed in a prescribed order; continuity is therefore obligatory. In ritual bathing, however, the body is treated as a single part: no prescribed order is required, and so continuity is likewise not required. The effect of ablution extends beyond the parts washed: one washes four parts of the body, yet purifies the entire body. Bathing to remove major ritual impurity, by contrast, resembles removing physical impurity: its effect does not extend beyond the area washed. Whenever one washes a part, major ritual impurity is lifted from it, just as physical impurity is removed from the area washed. But when one washes only some of the parts required for ablution, no ritual impurity is lifted, either from those parts or from any others. This is demonstrated by the fact that one is still not permitted to touch a copy of the Quran with the washed part.

It may, however, be said that this has no bearing on continuity. The requirement of continuity within a single thing is stronger than its requirement between two things. Prescribed order is different: it can apply only between two things, and these must be different, since identical acts—such as the circuits of circumambulation and the laps of the ritual walk—have no prescribed order among themselves. This is why Ahmad and Mālik did not require a prescribed order between the units of prayer. Rather, if someone forgets an essential element of one unit and does not remember it until he has begun reciting in the second, the second takes the place of the first. Bathing to remove major ritual impurity is a single act of worship, in which the need for continuity is more evident than in ablution, and it is an act of worship in its own right