Does touching a woman break one’s wudoo’?

 

A man can hardly go through his day
without giving and taking things from his wife. If he has wudoo’ and touches his
wife, does this break his wudoo’?

Praise be to Allaah.

The scholars differ as to whether touching one’s wife directly
breaks a man’s wudoo’. The most correct opinion is that it does not break his
wudoo’, regardless of whether he touched her with desire or not, because the Prophet

(peace and blessings of Alaah be upon him) kissed some of his wives and did not do
wudoo’ after that, and because it would impose a lot of hardship if wudoo’ was
required in this case. If it broke a person’s wudoo’, the Prophet
(peace
and blessings of Allaah be upon him) would have said so.

With regard to the words of Allaah in the Qur’aan (interpretation
of the meaning): “… or you have been in contact with women…”
[al-Nisa’ 4:43; al-Maa’idah 5:6], this refers to sexual intercourse
according to the sounder scholarly opinion.