Can I Perform Tayamum Because the Time of the Prayer Is About to Exit?
Hanafi Fiqh
Answered by Ustadh Sufyan Qufi
Question
A teacher once told me that when one is in a state of najasa and if prayer time was closing, such as if I were to miss prayer had I taken my ghusl- then it became permissible for me to take tayamum and perform my prayer instead of missing it. She said this in reference to a hadith, in which a sahabah reports he was impure and needed to pray, so he ‘rolled in the sand’ and went to perform his prayer. Recently I found out that the specific hadith was considered weak. So what should be done in this situation? It’s tough when one is impure to wake up and do ghusl early in the morning esp in the summer as isha is at 11.30 and fajr is around 3.40. Please advise.
Answer
The fear of praying it outside of its time is not an excuse because if you won’t be able to pray it within its time, you will still be able to make it up after its time. Thus, there is no need to perform the Tayamum in this instance. [Marghinani, Hidaya]
Only when a prayer has no replacement is allowed to perform Tayamum despite the presence of water. Examples are the funeral prayer and the ‘id prayers. [Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah]
Caution
Nonetheless, in the first situation, when one knows that if he performs ghusl or wudu, the time of the regular obligatory prayer will exit, it remains recommended (mustahab) to pray this prayer with Tayamum within its time and then perform a proper ghusl or wudu and make up the prayer validly. [Ibn Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]
Nonetheless, in this instance, the stronger position is that this prayer will be invalid and we have no choice but to follow it because this is the position on which later Sunni scholars have settled on.
Allah, Most High, says: “Ask those who have knowledge if you do not know” [16.43]
Ustadh Sufyan Qufi is an advanced seeker of knowledge, originally from Algeria, who grew up in France. He began searching far and wide for answers to the fundamental questions of life and was disappointed at the answers he found.
Then he connected with various traditional teachers and gradually connected with SeekersGuidance. He embarked on his journey of learning through the various teachers at SeekersGuidance, including his mentor Shaykh Faraz Rabbani.
He studied numerous texts in Islamic Law, Theology, Hadith, and other areas with Shaykh Faraz Rabbani and other teachers, including Shaykh Abdurrahman al-Sha‘ar, Shaykh Ali Hani, and others.
He is an active instructor at SeekersGuidance and answers questions through the SeekersGuidance Answers Service.
