Al-Bajūrī said,
The word “wudū” used in the title of this chapter is used in its linguistic and religious sense. The former means to wash and cleanse the hands and the latter means to perform ablution.
This chapter is dedicated to explaining that ablution is neither obligatory nor recommended at the time of eating and that washing the hands is recommended.
185. ‘Abdullāh ibn Abbās narrated: “Once after the Messenger of Allāh (peace be upon him) finished relieving himself from the call of nature, food was served to him. He was asked if the water for ablution should be brought. He replied, ‘I have only been commanded to perform ablution when I want to pray.’” [214]
Abdul Razzaq al-Badr said,
The statement of the Messenger of Allāh (peace be upon him) was to explain to the companions that ablution is not required when a person wants to eat; rather only when one wants to pray.
Al-Bajūrī said,
The command that the Messenger of Allāh (peace be upon him) referred to was the ayah: {O you who have believed, when you rise to [perform] prayer, wash your faces and your forearms to the elbows and wipe over your heads and wash your feet to the ankles.}[215]
Al-Walī al-Irāqī said, “This hadīth is a proof that the Messenger of Allāh (peace be upon him) liked to perform ablution before each prayer, whether he was in a state of purity or not, except on the day Makkah was conquered as he prayed the five daily prayers with one ablution. This made ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab exclaim saying, ‘I saw you today doing something you never did before.’ The Prophet (peace be upon him) replied, ‘O Umar! I did that intentionally.’”[216]
186. ‘Abdullāh ibn Abbās narrated: “Once after the Messenger of Allāh (peace be upon him) finished relieving himself from the call of nature, food was served to him. He was asked if he was going to perform ablution. He replied, ‘Am I going to offer a prayer so that I need to perform ablution?’” [217]
187. Salmān al-Fārisī narrated: “I have read in the Torah that to attain the blessings from food one should wash the hands after eating. I mentioned this to the Messenger of Allāh (peace be upon him) and so he said, ‘The blessing in food is attained when washing the hands before and after eating.’” [218]
Al-Bajūrī said,
It is recommended to allow the children to wash their hands first before old people as the hands of children are more likely to be dirty compared to the hands of old people and water may run out if the old people take the lead. This is recommended before eating and the opposite is the case after eating, meaning the old people should be given priority to wash their hands over the youngsters to show respect to their age. As for the host, he takes the priority to wash his hands first before everyone but should be the last to wash his hands. It is recommended to dry the washed hands after eating but not before eating. This is because if the towel has some dirt on it and hands were dried using it before eating, then the dirt may transfer to the hands, and also because wet hands will prevent the ghee (butter) from sticking to the hands.
Al-Qurtubī said,
If the one who reads it (the Qur’ān) will have a tenfold reward or more for each letter, according to what we mentioned in the introduction to this book, then turning away from it and towards other scriptures is misguidance and loss, and this is a poor trade off and waste of time.
Ibn Hajar al-Asqalānī said,
It is important to note that in the case of those who are not well-versed in knowledge and are lacking in faith, it is not permissible for them to read any of those books.