{ ... or you have touched women, but you can not find any water, then dry wipe with clean earth, and wipe your faces and your hands } Al-nisaa 43

There is disagreement regarding the meaning of “touching” and “intimate contact”. Some people say that it is sex; this is what Ibn ‘Abbas, Al-Hasan, Mujahid, and Qatada say. Sex is alluded to as “touching” since sex can only occur with touching. Some people say that both of these refer to the coming together of two skins, with or without sex; this is what Ibn Mas’ud, Ibn ‘Umar, Al-Sha’bi, and Al-Nakh’i say. The jurists disagree regarding the ruling of this verse. One group holds that whenever a man brings any part of his body to any part of a woman’s body, there being no barrier between the two of them, then the ablution of both of them is invalidated; this is what Ibn Mas’ud and Ibn ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with both of them) say, and Al-Zuhri, Al-Awza’i, and Al-Shafi’i (may Allah be pleased with them) said this as well. Malik, Al-Laith ibn Sa’d, Ahmad, and Ishaq said that if the touching is out of desire, purity is invalidated, while if it is not out of desire, it is not invalidated.