and mithl (“exactly like”) are not of the same strength: the word mithl prima facie demands equality in every respect, whereas naḥw (“similar to”) conveys likeness only figuratively. In our ḥadith the figurative sense is inevitable, for the promised reward is conditioned upon true conformity.

Overall meaning
This magnificent ḥadith contains the complete description of the Prophet’s wudūʾ.

ʿUthmān—may Allah be pleased with him—out of his fine pedagogical skill, taught them the Prophet’s manner of ablution by means of a live demonstration, for that is more persuasive and leaves a clearer image in the mind. He requested a vessel of water and, so as not to contaminate it, did not immerse his hands in it. Instead, he poured water over his hands three times until they were clean; only then did he dip his right hand into the vessel, take water with it, rinse his mouth and sniff water into his nose, wash his face three times, wash his hands together with the elbows three times, wipe his entire head once, and wash his feet together with the ankles three times.

When he had finished this practical lesson, he told them that he had seen the Prophet ﷺ perform an ablution exactly like it. After the Prophet ﷺ had completed that perfect wudūʾ he said that whoever performs a wudūʾ like his and then prays two rakʿahs with his heart attentive before his Lord, Allah—out of His grace—will repay that perfect ablution and that sincere prayer by forgiving all his past sins.

Divergence of scholarly opinion
The leading imams—Abū Ḥanīfah, Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, Sufyān, and others—hold that inhaling water into the nose (istinshāq) during wudūʾ is recommended, not obligatory.

The well-known position in the school of Imam Aḥmad is that it is obligatory; the wudūʾ is not valid without it. This is also the view of Abū Laylā, Isḥāq, and others.

The first group cite the ḥadith “Ten practices are from the sunnahs of the messengers,” among which is istinshāq; and, they argue, a sunnah is not legally binding. Those who deem it obligatory base themselves on the verse, “Wash your faces” (Q 5:6), contending that the nose is part of the face, as well as on the many authentic ḥadiths that describe the Prophet’s own practice ﷺ and his explicit command to perform it.

They answer the evidence of the non-obligatory view by saying that in the ḥadith the term sunnah simply means “established way,” whereas restricting sunnah to non-obligatory acts is a convention introduced by later jurists.

For this reason similar wording appears in many ḥadiths, among them the report, “Ten traits are of the fiṭrah.”