just as ‘Ā’ishah—may Allah be pleased with her—would sometimes wash it off his garment and sometimes scrape it off.

Sa‘d ibn Abī Waqqās and Ibn ‘Abbās used to say: “Remove it from yourself, even with a sprig of idhkhir grass, for it is no different from mucus and saliva.” ‘Amra used to wash it from his garment. If he believed semen to be impure, then this is a disagreement among the Companions, and the Sunnah settles their disagreement. If the view that semen is impure has weak support in the Sunnah—since the Prophet did not command that it be washed off, despite how commonly people were affected by it—then this other view is weaker still. For none of the Companions reported that mere touching, entirely devoid of desire, invalidates ablution. They disagreed only about contact ordinarily associated with desire, such as kissing, squeezing with the hand, and the like.

Furthermore, requiring ablution because of touching, whether touching women or touching the penis, conflicts with the established principles unless its rationale is that such contact is likely to arouse desire. If, however, it is explained by the arousal of desire, it accords with those principles. Here the jurists take two approaches:

The first is the position of those who say that such contact makes the discharge of something that invalidates ablution likely, so the likelihood is treated as equivalent to its actual occurrence. This is a weak position. A circumstance indicating likelihood is treated as equivalent to actual occurrence only when the underlying reason for the ruling is not readily discernible and that circumstance usually leads to it. Neither condition is present here: if anything were discharged, the man would know it. Moreover, touching the penis does not ordinarily cause any discharge at all, for semen is emitted only when ejaculation is deliberately induced