Does touching the private part break ablution?

This is one of the questions on what breaks ablution; Abu Dawud gives it two facing chapters, "ablution after touching the private part" and "the permission in this", and al-Khattabi relates the views of the Companions and jurists on it. ¹

Malik relates from 'Abd Allah ibn Abi Bakr that he heard 'Urwa say: I went in to Marwan ibn al-Hakam and we spoke of what requires ablution; Marwan said, "And touching the private part"; 'Urwa said, "I did not know that"; Marwan said, "Busra bint Safwan told me she heard the Prophet ﷺ say: whoever touches his private part, let him perform ablution." ² The annotator identifies Busra as the daughter of Safwan ibn Nawfal ibn Asad ibn 'Abd al-'Uzza, one of the women who pledged allegiance and emigrated, niece of Waraqa ibn Nawfal and maternal grandmother of 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, and quotes al-Tirmidhi declaring the report sound. ³

Abu Dawud relates from Mulazim ibn 'Amr al-Hanafi, from 'Abd Allah ibn Badr, from Qays ibn Talq, from his father: we came to the Prophet, and a man who looked like a Bedouin asked about a man touching his private part after ablution; he said, "Is it anything but a morsel of him?" or "a piece of him?" ⁴ In Muhammad ibn Jabir's version: "in prayer". ⁴

Al-Khattabi relates the argument of those who require ablution: Busra's report is the later, since Abu Hurayra, a late convert, also related it, while Talq came at the beginning of the Hijra when the Prophet was building the mosque of Medina, and the later of two rulings is followed. ³ They took Talq's report to mean touching through a barrier, citing the words "in prayer", since one praying does not touch his private part without a barrier. ³

Al-Khattabi relates from Abu Bakr ibn al-Mundhir the report that Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Yahya ibn Ma'in met and discussed the question, Ahmad requiring ablution and Yahya not; they examined the reports until they agreed to set aside both, Busra's and Talq's, then turned to the Companions' practice, and Ahmad argued from the practice of Ibn 'Umar, which Yahya could not answer. ³

Abd al-Mu'ti Qal'aji takes this question as an example of Ibn Abd al-Barr's method in al-Istidhkar and sums up his treatment: he began with the hadith of Busra bint Safwan, noted the disagreement over her lineage and over the chain of her report, said that only Malik's transmission in the Muwatta' is sound, and that Marwan ibn al-Hakam related it from Busra and Urwa heard it from Marwan, adding that the role of Marwan's guard in the story does not weaken Marwan's established hearing from Busra but strengthens it. ⁵ He then gave the hadith of Umm Habiba, whose chain Ahmad called good, noted that Ahmad and Sa'id ibn al-Sakan judged Busra's hadith sound, and then gave Abu Hurayra's hadith on one whose hand reaches his private part, with those who judged it sound and those who found fault in it. ^{5 6} Next he listed the Companions and Followers who required ablution for touching and those who did not, Malik's view and his followers' four positions, distinguishing touching with the inside of the palm or the fingers and deliberate from forgetful touching, and then the views of Ibn Jurayj, al-Thawri, al-Hasan ibn Salih, Abu Hanifa and others. ⁶ The editor reports that Ibn Abd al-Barr concluded that debate on this question is legitimate because the reports differ, and related the Iraqis' argument that the hadiths requiring ablution are weak and that Talq ibn Ali's hadith removes the requirement, and that a group of scholars held Talq's hadith to be abrogated by Busra's. ^{6 7}

In the Book of Purity of al-Muhalla, Ibn Hazm holds that a man's deliberate touching of his own penis with anything — the inside or back of his hand or his forearm — requires ablution, except touching with the thigh, shin or foot, and that a woman touching her own private part is the same; deliberately touching another's private part, young or old, living or dead, with any limb also breaks it, and pleasure plays no role; touching by forgetfulness or compulsion, or through thin or thick cloth, does not. ⁸ He argues from Busra bint Safwan's report through Urwa from Marwan, holding that no fault is known in Marwan before his revolt against Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr and that Urwa met him only before it; he exempts the thigh, shin and foot by the consensus that a person at prayer necessarily has his private part against them. ^{8 9 10} He counts among those who required ablution Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, Ibn Umar, Ata', Urwa, Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib, al-Awza'i, al-Layth, al-Shafi'i, Dawud, Ahmad and Ishaq, and rejects the distinction drawn by al-Awza'i, al-Shafi'i and Malik between the inside and back of the palm, Malik's view that the prayer is repeated only within its time, and al-Shafi'i's extension by analogy to touching the anus. ^{10 11 12} He accepts Talq ibn Ali's report as sound but abrogated, since it agrees with what people did before the command to perform ablution after touching, and the words "is it anything but a part of you?" show it was said before that command. ^{12 13}

The views are given here as al-Khattabi relates them only; they have not yet been added from each school's own books, nor the details on a woman touching herself or touching another person.