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The added merit of ablution and prayer when they are accompanied by the siwak.
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Nothing kept the siwak from being declared obligatory except the fear that it would impose hardship on the people.
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The Prophet’s ﷺ perfect compassion for his community and his concern for their welfare.
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The Sacred Law is built on ease; it contains neither severity nor undue burden.
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Warding off harm takes precedence over securing benefit.
This last point is a great and extremely beneficial legal maxim. The Wise Lawgiver refrained from making the siwak compulsory for the ummah—despite its immense benefits—out of fear that Allah might obligate it, whereupon they might fail to uphold it and thereby incur serious loss by neglecting religious duties.
Hadith 2
Hudhayfah ibn al-Yamān narrated: Whenever the Messenger of Allah ﷺ rose during the night, he would scrub (1) his mouth with the siwak.
His statement “yashūṣu” is pronounced with a fatḥah on the yāʾ and a ḍamma on the shīn; al-shawṣ is to scrub the teeth crosswise with a siwak.
General meaning
Because the Prophet ﷺ loved cleanliness and detested foul odours, whenever he awoke from the long night’s sleep—when bad breath is likely—he would rub his teeth with the siwak to remove the smell and to revive himself after overcoming drowsiness, for the siwak is also known to stimulate and invigorate.
Lessons derived from the hadith
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The emphatic recommendation of using the siwak after sleeping at night; sleep naturally causes the breath to change, and the siwak is the tool that removes it. For this reason it is prescribed whenever such a change occurs.
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The emphatic recommendation of the siwak whenever the mouth develops an unpleasant odour, inferred from the preceding rationale.
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The general recommendation of cleanliness; it is part of the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ and among the loftiest manners.