An example of the case of whether or not a husband's ablution is invalidated by touching his wife
The first rule in jurisprudence is that all decisions must be based on the Qur'an and hadith. But in practice it is not easy to apply this rule even though the hadith is already in sight and feels like practicing the hadith. It could be that what is thought to be based on the hadith turns out to be based on assumptions about the hadith. This is a very different consequence.
I give a simple example in the case of whether or not the ablution of a husband touches the skin of his wife. In the Shafi'i school, it is understood that a husband is considered invalid for his wudhu if he touches his wife's skin, whether lust or not. This information is found in all Shafi'iyah books. The basis is al-Maidah verse: 6.
However, other people have different opinions. According to them, husband and wife's ablution is not canceled because there are traditions. Among them is a hadith which reads:
"From Habib bin Abi Thabit from Urwah from Aisyah RA. Indeed, the Prophet SAW once kissed some of his wives then went out to pray and did not perform ablution again."
At first glance the hadith clearly indicates that the husband's ablution is not invalidated because the Prophet Muhammad SAW after kissing his wife did not repeat his ablution again but immediately prayed. Finally, it was concluded that the Shafi'iyah fiqh was incorrect because it contradicted the hadith. Some people who can't measure themselves then say: "Want to follow the sunnah or follow the mazhab scholars?". It is as if the mazhab scholars have never seen the hadith alone.
When the hadith is read carefully, which part of it says that the skin of the Prophet Muhammad touched the skin of his wife? There is no. All there is to it is the word "kiss" and this kissing name doesn't have to be skin to skin. Kissing the head wrapped in cloth is also still called kissing; Kissing the cheek covered by the veil is also still called kissing.
So, the conclusion that the skin of the Prophet Muhammad touched the skin of his wife and then prayed without performing ablution again is a conclusion based on assumptions, not based on hadith. The hadith itself does not state that, only the reader's assumption is in that direction. Because it is only based on assumptions in reading the hadith and not based on the hadith itself, then this kind of thing is not strong enough to be used as a basis so that in Syafi'i fiqh the general rule is still used that the touching of the skin of a man and a woman who is not a mahram invalidates ablution, not to mention a husband at his wife.
In addition, the above hadith was declared weak by hadith experts such as Imam Ahmad, Sufyan Ats-Tsauri, Yahya bin Said, Abu Dawud, and many others. al-Baihaqi even said that Habib, the narrator of the hadith, misplaced the hadith about not breaking the fast because kissing the wife in the place where the husband's ablution was not invalidated when kissing his wife." Hadith is a matter of ijtihadiyah.
However, regardless of whether it is valid or not, the occurrence of skin-to-skin contact between the Prophet and his wife is still an assumption and an assumption is not a hadith. This is just an example case. In many other cases, the involvement of this assumption also occurs a lot so that it takes carefulness in discussing fiqh, it is not enough to just read briefly and conclude.
Hope it is useful
. an-Nawawi, al-Majmu'.
². Ibn Abdil Barr, al-Istidzkar