The Prophet ﷺ came out from the lavatory and food was brought to him. They mentioned ablution to him, and he said, "Do I intend to pray, that I should perform ablution?"
أن النبي ﷺ خرج من الخلاء، فأتي بطعام، فذكروا له الوضوء فقال: أريد أن أصلي فأتوضأ؟
Muslim narrated it in the chapter on menstruation (374) through multiple routes from Hammad bin Zayd, from Amr bin Dinar, from Saeed bin Huwayrith, from Ibn Abbas, and he related it.Abu Dawud (3760), Tirmidhi (1847), and Nasai (132) all narrated it from the hadith of Ismail bin Ulaya, who said, Ayub Sakhtiyani narrated to us, from Abdullah bin Abu Mulayka, from Abdullah bin Abbas, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came out from the toilet and food was brought to him. They said, "Shall we not bring you water for wudu?" He said, "I have only been commanded to perform wudu when I rise to pray." Its chain of transmission is sahih.Tirmidhi said, Ali bin Madini said that Yahya bin Saeed said, Sufyan Thawri used to dislike washing the hand before food, meaning as a matter of religious ritual, not as a matter of cleanliness, and this interpretation is necessary. As for what has been narrated about wudu before and after food, it is daif.It has been narrated from Salman that he said, "I read in the Torah that the blessing of food lies in wudu after it, so I mentioned that to the Prophet ﷺ and told him what I had read in the Torah. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, 'The blessing of food lies in wudu before it, and wudu after it.'"Abu Dawud (376), Tirmidhi (1846), Ahmad (23732), and Hakim (4/106) all narrated it through the route of Qays bin Rabi, from Abu Hashim, meaning Rumani, from Zazan, from Salman, and he related it.Abu Dawud said, "Sufyan used to dislike wudu before food." Abu Dawud said, "It is daif."Tirmidhi said, "We know this hadith only from the hadith of Qays bin Rabi, and Qays bin Rabi is judged daif in hadith transmission. Abu Hashim's name is Yahya bin Dinar."Hakim said, "Qays bin Rabi narrated it alone from Abu Hashim, and his being the sole narrator, despite his elevated standing, is too significant to allow this to be left out of this book."Dhahabi responded to him, saying, "Along with Qays's weakness, there is also a break in the chain of transmission."Abu Hatim said, "This is a munkar hadith." Al-Ilal (1502).