And [Imām] Mālik said, when asked about the ḥadīth, “Flee from the leper…”, “I have not heard anything objectionable about it, and I do not consider what has come regarding that except due to the fear that something may occur in the soul of the believer [of corruption in creed].”^[2]

And the meaning of this is that he negated contagion in principle [altogether], and he carried the command to avoid [the leper, the sick] from the angle of preserving the capital and closing the avenue, so that something of the [illness] does not occur in the one who mixes [with the leper, the sick] and he thinks it is because of the mixing, and thus affirms the contagion which the legislator negated.

And this [view] has been adopted by Abu ʿUbayd, Ibn Jarīr [al-Ṭabarī], al-Ṭaḥāwī, and it is mentioned by al-Qāḍī Abū Yaʿlā from Aḥmad.

And Isḥāq bin Bahlūl had said:

I mentioned this ḥadīth to Aḥmad bin Ḥanbal, meaning the ḥadīth of Jābir that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) took the hand of a leper and placed it in the pot with his own and said: “In the name of Allāh, placing trust in Allāh.”^[4] So he [Aḥmad] said: “I adopt that [as a course of conduct].” So it is likely that this is [the same] as what ʿUmar adopted and others from the Salaf of eating with him [the leper].