The Meaning of His Saying (Glorified and Exalted is He): “Or have you touched the women, and then you find no water, then purify yourselves”

The Shaykh : So here, when we found this disagreement, it became obligatory for us to return to what Allah (Mighty and Majestic) commanded us to return to, namely the Book and the Sunnah. In the Book, we found the verse: , which is the one Imam al-Shafi'i relied upon when he said: “It is obligatory to perform wudu from touching women.” And in the Sunnah, we found this explicit hadith of Aisha that the Messenger (peace be upon him) did not perform wudu, not only when he touched his wife, but also when he kissed her. For kissing is touching and more; because this touching may not be accompanied by desire, whereas kissing is always and forever accompanied by desire for the spouses.
So the scholars of jurisprudence differed in reconciling the verse and the hadith. The verse says: , and its apparent meaning is this touching. The hadith says: No, it does not invalidate wudu. The scholars of tafsir of the old generation also differed regarding the verse itself; some took its apparent meaning ; merely touching a woman invalidates wudu. And some said: No, the intended meaning of this touching mentioned in this verse is nothing but intercourse. So the touching or is an euphemism for intercourse. This is the saying of Ibn Abbas, the interpreter of the Qur’an, and this is the saying of Ali ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) that the verse does not mean ordinary touching, but rather means intercourse. And Ibn Abbas specifically says: The Qur’an is subtle in euphemism; it uses a very soft expression; and it means something that is usually considered ugly to state explicitly. So he says: and it means intercourse. This is exactly the saying of Ibn Abbas, and Ali ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) also interpreted the verse to mean intercourse.
And this is what the scholars of tafsir preferred, considering that when Allah (Mighty and Majestic) mentioned the invalidators here in the verse, He also mentioned what obligates the ghusl; namely, what He referred to by touching.
And among the rules of the scholars of tafsir in interpreting the Noble Qur’an is that they return to the Sunnah in understanding the Qur’an; because Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said, addressing His Prophet in the Qur’an: , O Messenger of Allah, We revealed to you the Reminder; that is: the Qur’an, and We commanded you and entrusted the matter to you to clarify it, interpret it, and explain it to the people. So the clarification of the Qur’an is something other than the Qur’an itself. This is a reality that must be firmly established in the minds of all Muslims so that they can understand the Shari'ah correctly. that is: the Qur’an, what was revealed in the Qur’an, you are in charge of clarifying it; so that no one comes and says: the meaning of the verse is such, the meaning of the verse is such, interpreting the Qur’an with his opinion, thereby going astray and leading others astray.
And thus, all the scholars of the Muslims agreed that the Qur’an is not permissible to interpret except by relying on the Sunnah, which is of three types: either his saying, or his doing, or his approval. As for his saying (peace be upon him), it is clear: if the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) spoke of a ruling, that was a clarification of what was summarized in the Qur’an. For example: ; that is: and the prayer of Fajr. So here in this verse, the establishment of three times is mentioned.

Another questioner: Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah.
= the setting of the sun, its disappearance in the middle of the day, until the onset of darkness, that is: the prayer of Fajr. These are three times. Where are the five times? We have five! The Messenger (peace be upon him) clarified them in many hadiths, which are not our concern now.
So this verse is interpreted in light of the Sunnah: the setting of the sun; that is: its disappearance after it has moved toward the west. This includes the times of Zuhr and Asr. And the darkness of the night includes the times of Maghrib and Isha. Where did we get this detail? From the Sunnah, from the hadith of the prayer of Jibril with the Messenger as imam. He prayed Zuhr between Zuhr and Asr at the beginning of the time, then he prayed Zuhr the next day close to Asr, then he prayed Asr at the beginning of the time, then he prayed Asr before the sun turned yellow, then he prayed Maghrib at the beginning of the time, then he prayed Maghrib at the end of the time, then Isha. And in all of that, he said (peace be upon him): . We are not concerned with that here; the point is that the Messenger (peace be upon him) interprets the Qur’an, either by his saying, as he said here: , or by his doing. And the examples of that are many, as they are detailed in the books of tafsir.
And among the most famous of these examples: . Look at how the Sunnah now clarifies this verse; because the word thief linguistically is applied even to one who steals a worthless coin, he is called a thief. One who steals an egg is called a thief. One who steals a chicken is called a thief. Anything; so do you cut off his hand? The verse said: If we take the language only and do not rely on the clarification of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), we will go astray. And this is the example: . He said (peace and blessings be upon him) in clarifying this thief whose hand is cut off: . One who steals less than a quarter of a dinar in value, it is not permissible to cut off his hand; even though Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said: . But the Messenger clarified that the thief whom Allah meant is the one who steals a quarter of a dinar or more. Then where is his hand cut off? He said: the thief, male or female. Do you cut off his hand here? Or here? Or here? The Sunnah clarified that the hand is cut off from here, not from the elbows or the armpits, but from here. This is clarification by action. That is clarification by saying: clarification by saying. This is clarification by action. And what we are dealing with now is of this kind: “He used to kiss some of his wives and then stand up to pray without performing wudu.” So this kissing is a clarification that His Saying (Blessed and Exalted is He) in the Qur’an: is not this touching, nor this touching, but rather it is a euphemism—as Ali and Ibn Abbas said—for intercourse.