In that report she is required to perform ablution, and this is the view most commonly cited. A second transmission from Mālik, however, shows leniency: he held that ablution is not obligatory unless she deliberately stimulates herself, and he explained such stimulation as the pursuit of pleasure.

Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Uways relates: “I asked Mālik ibn Anas about a woman who touches her private part. Is ablution incumbent upon her?” Mālik answered, “If she engages in ilṭāf, then ablution is due.” I said, “What is ilṭāf?” He replied, “She inserts her hand between the labia.”

Mālik also obliges ablution when one doubts whether a minor ritual impurity has occurred and that doubt is the result of heavy sleep—provided the doubt is not frequent and obsessive. The great majority of the scholars of Medina and elsewhere do not require ablution on the basis of doubt, for they hold that mere doubt carries no legal weight. Some Iraqi Mālikī shaykhs have even said that, according to Mālik, if a person is certain of his ablution yet unsure about having invalidated it, renewing ablution is only recommended.

In the Muwaṭṭaʾ, Mālik records that whoever finds traces of a nocturnal emission on his clothes but does not know when it occurred need not repeat any prayers except for those performed after the last sleep he remembers; this reflects his principle of disregarding sheer doubt, following what is narrated from ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him).

As for continuous leakage of urine, or persistent discharge of pre-seminal fluid (madhī) or prostatic fluid (wadī) that departs from one’s normal state, none of these necessitates ablution—though it is recommended.