it is authentically reported that he said: “The ears are part of the head.” Al-Daraqutni transmitted it (1/98/5), as did Abd al-Razzaq (1/11).

Fourth: The majority of scholars held this view, as stated in al-Nawawi’s al-Majmu‘ (1/413). This is among the factors by which a weak hadith is strengthened according to Imam al-Shafi‘i and others. See The Jilbab of the Muslim Woman (pp. 13, 59–60).

Fifth: The Prophet’s practice in accordance with this is authentically established in the hadiths of al-Miqdam ibn Ma‘di Yakrib and Ibn Abbas: he wiped his head and his ears, both their outer and inner surfaces. Abu Dawud and others transmitted both reports, and they are included in Sahih Abi Dawud (112–114 and 126). He did not take fresh water for his ears. As for the hadith of Abdullah ibn Zayd al-Mazini, stating that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, took water for his ears other than the water he had taken for his head, it is an anomalous hadith and is not authentic. The preserved wording, as al-Hafiz said, is: “He wiped his head with water other than the remnant on his hands.” Muslim and others transmitted it, and it is included in Sahih Abi Dawud, no. 111. I have discussed the anomaly mentioned above at length in the second volume of al-Da‘ifah, under hadith no. 995.

I say: If some of these considerations had been present in the mursal hadith, they would have sufficed to strengthen it and raise it to the level at which it may be adduced as evidence. How much more so when they are all combined? This is also the view preferred by al-San‘ani.

There is another consideration by which it may be strengthened through reasoned analysis: the point made by Imam Abu Ja‘far al-Tahawi in Sharh al-Ma‘ani (1/20), namely that there is consensus that a woman in ihram is not required to cover her face, whereas she is required to cover her head and her ears, both their outer and inner surfaces. This indicates that, with respect to wiping, their ruling is that of the head, not that of the face. And Allah knows best.

After writing the foregoing, I came across al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar in Notes on the Book of Ibn