Likewise, none of the reports from some of the Companions about performing ablution after bleeding establishes that it is obligatory; rather, they indicate that it is recommended.

There is nothing in the scriptural evidence to establish that this is obligatory, as has been explained at length elsewhere. Indeed, al-Dāraqutnī and others narrated from Humayd, from Anas, who said:

“The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—underwent cupping and did not perform ablution; he did no more than wash the sites where he had been cupped.”

Ibn al-Jawzī also narrated it in “The Opponent’s Argument” without declaring it weak, although his usual practice is to raise whatever criticism he can.

As for the hadith narrated with the wording:

“Three things do not break the fast: vomiting, cupping, and a wet dream,”

and, in another wording:

“Neither one who vomits, nor one who has a wet dream, nor one who undergoes cupping breaks his fast,”

its established chain of transmission is that narrated by al-Thawrī and others from Zayd ibn Aslam, from one of his associates, from one of the Companions of the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—who said: “The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said…” This is how Abū Dāwūd narrated it, and this man is unknown.

‘Abd al-Rahmān ibn Zayd ibn Aslam also narrated it from his father, from ‘Atā’, from Abū Sa‘īd, from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. However, ‘Abd al-Rahmān is considered weak by the scholars of narrator criticism.

(I say: The report’s transmission from Zayd through two routes, traced back to the Prophet, does not contradict its transmission