“No believer hates the Arabs, and none loves Thaqif except a believer.”

Al-Haythami said (10/53): “Al-Tabarani narrated it from Ibn Umar, and its chain includes Sahl ibn Amir, who is weak.” It will come, Allah willing, under no. 2029 with the wording: “O Salman, do not hate me, lest you abandon your religion.”

1235 — “If one of you touches his genitals with his hand, let him perform ablution.”

Al-Nasa’i (1/76) narrated it through Shuʿbah, from Maʿmar, from al-Zuhri, from ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr, from Busrah bint Safwan, who reported that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said this.

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission according to the criteria of the two Sahih collections. Whoever considers it defective on the grounds of a break between ʿUrwah and Busrah is refuted by what Ahmad (6/407) and others narrated: Yahya ibn Saʿid related to us from Hisham, who said: My father related to me that Busrah bint Safwan informed him that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Whoever touches his penis should not pray until he performs ablution.”

I say: This too is an authentic chain; all of its narrators are trustworthy narrators of the two Sahih collections, and it is continuous through explicit statements of transmission. It is therefore among the most authentic chains of transmission. It also refutes al-Nasa’i’s subsequent statement: “Hisham ibn ʿUrwah did not hear this hadith from his father.” I do not know how al-Nasa’i could say this when Hisham explicitly states that he heard it from his father, and Yahya ibn Saʿid al-Qattan—the trustworthy, precise hadith master—narrates this from him!

Al-Hakim (1/136) also narrated it through Hammad ibn Zayd, from Hisham ibn ʿUrwah, from ʿUrwah; and it includes ʿUrwah’s statement: “Busrah bint Safwan related it to me.” Thus, he explicitly affirmed hearing it directly from her. Nor is this undermined by certain versions stating that he narrated it from Marwan, from her; that was initially the case, but ʿUrwah later met Busrah and asked her, and she confirmed Marwan’s narration from her, as is stated explicitly by al-Hakim and others.

The well-known wording of the hadith is: “Whoever touches his penis, let him perform ablution.” I have documented its sources in Sahih Abi Dawud (174), Irwa’ al-Ghalil (196), and elsewhere. The wording of the heading is supported by a corroborating report from Abu Hurayrah, attributed to the Prophet: