Abū Hurayrah would then add, “Whoever is able to extend this radiance, let him do so,” for the wider the area of the limb that is washed, the wider the blaze on the face and the brightness on the hands and feet will be, since one’s adornment of light will reach everywhere the water of ablution reaches.

Disagreement over extending the blaze
Scholars have differed on whether it is recommended to wash beyond the obligatory limits of the face, arms, and feet in ablution. The majority hold that it is praiseworthy to do so—acting upon this ḥadīth—though they disagree about how far the recommendation extends.

Mālik, as well as one report from Aḥmad, consider it not recommended to exceed the prescribed area. This view was also chosen by Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn al-Qayyim, and our teacher ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Nāṣir al-Saʿdī. They supported their position with the following points:

1. Treating the act of going beyond the obligatory area as an act of worship is a claim that requires evidence. The ḥadīth before us does not indicate this; it only speaks of the light on the limbs washed in ablution on the Day of Resurrection. Abū Hurayrah’s practice represents his own understanding of the report, and we do not adopt his understanding when stronger evidence contradicts it. As for the words, “So whoever is able…,” they judged that this phrase is an addition from Abū Hurayrah himself, not part of the Prophet’s ﷺ statement.

2. Even if we conceded the point, consistency would demand washing beyond the face into the hair of the head—yet that is not called a blaze (ghurra), making the argument internally contradictory.

3. None of the Companions is reported to have understood the ḥadīth in this way or to have washed beyond the obligatory limits. In fact, it is related that Abū Hurayrah used to conceal himself out of fear that people would find his practice strange.

4. All those who described the Prophet’s ﷺ ablution mentioned only that he washed his face, his arms up to and including the elbows, and his feet up to and including the ankles; he would not have left a superior practice every time he performed ablution. Ibn Ḥajar said in Fatḥ al-Bārī: “I have not seen this clause in any narration from the ten Companions who transmitted this ḥadīth, nor from anyone who reported it from Abū Hurayrah except this narration of Nuʿaym.”

5. The noble verse fixes the obligatory limits at the elbows and the ankles, and it was revealed near the end of the Qur’an’s revelation. Ibn al-Qayyim quotes in Hādī al-Arwāḥ: “The two Shaykhs recorded—in Muslim’s wording—from Abū Ḥāzim, who said: I was standing behind Abū Hurayrah while he performed ablution for prayer, and he would extend washing his arm until it reached his armpit. I said, ‘Abū Hurayrah, what kind of ablution is this?’ He replied, ‘O Banī Farūkh (1), are you here? Had I known that you…’”