This is further evidence of the excellence of ablution: the limbs washed in wuduʾ will come on the Day of Resurrection white, flashing with light. Abu Hurayrah then says, “So whoever among you can extend his brightness, let him do so.” Yet this clause is not the Prophet’s own wording—peace and blessings be upon him—but an addition by Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him). From a legal standpoint it is not sound, for its outward sense suggests that a person can enlarge his ghurra—that is, broaden the area of his face—which is impossible. The face is fixed: from ear to ear and from the top of the forehead’s curve to the bottom of the beard. This shows the phrase is Abu Hurayrah’s ijtihād, as Ibn al-Qayyim pointed out in his Nūniyyah:

Abu Hurayrah coined that line from his own purse;
Tomorrow the people of insight will recognize it.
To lengthen the ghurra is simply impossible—
A fact that needs no further proof or argument.

In any case, what Allah has required of us is to wash the face, the hands up to the elbows, and the feet up to the ankles. That is the limit of wuduʾ. It is honor enough that on the Day of Resurrection people will appear while these very parts of their bodies gleam with light because of ablution. The report therefore proves the merit of wuduʾ, affirms the reality of resurrection, and shows that every nation will be called to account by its Book: did it believe in it or not?

As for the second narration, the hadith of Abu Hurayrah in which the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—said, “The believer’s adornment will reach only as far as his ablution reached,”