Legal implications of the ḥadīth

Since the report has been established as authentic, it bears on two juristic questions over which the scholars have differed.

The first question: Is wiping the ears during wuḍūʾ obligatory or merely a sunnah? The Ḥanbalīs opt for the first view, and their evidence is this very ḥadīth, for it explicitly appends the ears to the head, and that can only be to show that they share the same ruling in regard to wiping. The majority, however, maintain that wiping them is only recommended, as stated in al-Fiqh ʿalā al-Madhāhib al-Arbaʿah (1/56). The sole argument we have found for rejecting this ḥadīth is al-Nawawī’s remark in al-Majmūʿ (1/415) that it is weak through all of its chains. Yet you now know that this is not the case: some of its routes are ṣaḥīḥ—routes that escaped al-Nawawī’s notice—while others are sound through corroboration. This reveals the weakness of that objection and demonstrates that wiping the ears is obligatory, their ruling being identical to that of the head. It is enough to have as a model in this position the Imām of the Sunnah, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, who was preceded in it by a group of Companions, some of whose names were cited earlier when the isnād was examined; indeed, al-Nawawī himself (1/413) attributes the view to most of the early generations.

The second question: Is the moisture already on the hands after wiping the head sufficient for wiping the ears, or must fresh water be taken for them? The three imāms adopt the first opinion, as stated by al-Munāwī in his commentary on the ḥadīth in Fayḍ al-Qadīr, where he says:

“The ears are part of the head, not of the face, nor are they an independent limb; hence there is no need to take separate water for them apart from the water used for the head in wuḍūʾ. Wiping them with the remaining dampness of that water is sufficient, for otherwise the statement would merely describe human anatomy, and the Chosen One ﷺ was not sent for that purpose. This is the position of the three imāms.”