We were with the Prophet ﷺ when he went to relieve himself. Afterwards he came out and called for food. On one occasion, he said, food was brought to him.Someone asked, "Messenger of Allah, will you not perform ablution?"He replied, "I am not about to pray, so why should I perform ablution?"
حدثنا سفيان عن عمرو عن سعيد بن الحويرث
كنا عند النبي ﷺ فأتى الغائط ثم خرج فدعا بالطعام وقال مرة فأتي بالطعام فقيل يا رسول الله ألا توضأ قال لم أصل فأتوضأ
Its chain of transmission is sahih. Saeed bin Huwayrith Makki, the freed slave of the family of Saaib, is a trustworthy successor. Ibn Main, Abu Zura, and Nasai all confirmed his trustworthiness, and Bukhari mentioned him in Al-Kabir 2/2/424.Muslim narrated this hadith in 1:111 through Ibn Uyayna and others. In Al-Tahdhib 4:19 it is noted that Tirmidhi also narrated it in Al-Shamail, as did Nasai, and that this is the only hadith of Saeed found in the six books.As for his statement, "I will not pray until I perform wudu," it means, I do not intend to pray until I perform wudu for it. Nawawi vocalized it in his commentary on Muslim 4:69 as "lam" with a kasra on the lam, and "usalli" with the ya retained at the end, saying that it is a rhetorical question of denial. In either reading, the meaning is clear.This will come again at 2558, and something similar will come by the narration of Ibn Abu Mulayka from Ibn Abbas at 2549.