Another group held that it requires everyone who already has ablution to perform it anew. Both views are weak.

As for the first group, some said that what is meant here is someone rising from sleep. This view is well known from Zayd ibn Aslam and those who agreed with him among the scholars of Medina, including Mālik’s followers and others.

They said that, through this wording, the verse requires ablution of someone who has slept; of someone who has relieved himself, through His words:

“Or one of you has relieved himself”;

and of someone who has touched women, through His words:

“Or you have had contact with women.”

These are the usual causes of ritual impurity, and in their view they are what necessitate ablution.

Some of them said that the verse’s clauses are not in their intended order, which would be:

“When you rise to pray after sleeping, or one of you has relieved himself, or you have had contact with women.”

The response is this: as for the verse applying to someone rising from ordinary sleep, its apparent wording does encompass him. But the claim that it applies exclusively to him, so that it does not encompass someone who was already awake and rose to pray, is weak. Rather, the verse encompasses the latter in both wording and meaning.

For most prayers, people rise to pray while already awake, not after sleeping: