the fasting person, and that act is something over and above a mere kiss. The scholars have differed over exactly what is intended by it here. Al-Qārī said: “Some hold that it means the husband touching his wife in all areas short of actual intercourse, while others say it refers to kissing and touching with the hand.”

I say: There is no doubt that kissing is not what is meant by mubāsharah (physical intimacy) in this context, because the coordinating particle wa (“and”) indicates that the two acts are distinct. What remains, therefore, is either the first interpretation or simply touching with the hand, and the first view is the stronger of the two for two reasons:

1. The other ḥadīth of ʿĀʾishah in which she said: “When any one of us was menstruating and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ wished to be intimate with her, he would command her to wrap a waist-cloth round the lower part of her body at the very onset of her menses, and then he would be intimate with her.” She added, “And which of you can control his desire as he did?” This was narrated by al-Bukhārī (1/320), Muslim (1/166–167) and others. The mubāsharah mentioned there is the same mubāsharah mentioned in the fasting report—for the wording, the indication and the narration are identical. Just as nothing in that context confines mubāsharah to a meaning other than the first, the same holds true for the fasting ḥadīth.

2. There is further support for that meaning: Lady ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) herself interpreted mubāsharah in terms that point to this sense when she said in one of her narrations, “He would engage in mubāsharah while fasting, then place a cloth between himself and her—that is, over the private part.”

221 – “He would engage in mubāsharah while fasting, then place a cloth between himself and her—that is, over the private part.”

Imām Aḥmad recorded it (6/59): Ibn Numayr narrated to us from Ṭalḥah ibn Yaḥyā who said, ʿĀʾishah bint Ṭalḥah related to me from ʿĀʾishah that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to…; it was also narrated by Ibn Khuzaymah in his Ṣaḥīḥ (1/201/2).

I say: This chain is good; all of its transmitters are trustworthy and are narrators found in Muslim, were it not that this Ṭalḥah has in him