Praying and Cold Weather.

Answered by Shaykh Jamir Meah

Question: Assalamu alaykum

I want to pray five times a day but my problem is that sometimes I feel too lazy to make ablution because of cold weather. Please suggest me ways or alternatives so that I don’t miss my prayers just because of laziness of making ablution.

Answer: Wa’alaykum assalam, I hope you’re well inshallah.

Sometimes it can be quite hard to get oneself motivated to renew ablution during cold weather, but prayers are obligations which must be fulfilled, so we must brace ourselves and make wudu regardless of the weather.

Suggestions

Perhaps the following suggestions will be of benefit to you:

1. Remember that sins are washed away with each wash of the limbs in wudu, and that we are preparing to meet Allah each time we stand in prayer, so we should want to be pure in every way for these occasions.

2. Make sure you have warm water available.

3. Have a bathroom heater fitted and have a heater in your room turned on at those times.

4. While generally it is disliked to wipe away the water from wudu on one’s limbs (because of suggestion 1), if you need to due to the cold, then have a towel on hand to dry yourself as soon as you finish wudu, or even after each limb washed.

5. Consider wearing khuffs which will save you washing your feet in wudu.

6. If you need to, you may restrict your washes to the minimum one wash for each limb and not perform the sunna of three washes.

7. If you really feel you may miss prayers due to this issue, then you may consider praying two prayers closer together, for example, you pray Dhur closer to the entrance of Asr (while ensuring there is ample time to pray Dhur on time) and Asr at it’s earliest time etc. However, this should only be resorted to out of real necessity and fear of missing prayers, and one should be reasonably confident that they will remember to pray the prayer at the later time (Dhur in our example). Generally, it is always best to pray prayers at their earliest times when possible.

8. Pray to Allah to keep laziness away using this supplication:

اَللّهُمَّ إِنِّيْ أَعُوْذُ بِكَ مِنَ الْعِجْزِ ، وَالْكَسْلِ، وَالْجُبْنِ ، وَالْهَرَمِ ، وَالْبُخْلِ ، وَأَعُوْذُ بِكَ مِنْ عَذَابِ الْقَبْرِ، وَأَعُوْذُ بِكَ مِنْ فِتْنَةِ الْمَحْيَا وَالْمَمَاتِ

‘O Allah, I seek refuge in You from weakness and laziness, miserliness and cowardice, anxiety and sorrow, and I seek refuge in You from the torments of grave, and I seek refuge in You from the trials and tribulations of life and death’. [Sahih Muslim]

I hope the above is of use.

Warmest salams,
[Shaykh] Jamir Meah

Shaykh Jamir Meah grew up in Hampstead, London. In 2007, he traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he spent nine years studying the Islamic sciences on a one-to-one basis under the foremost scholars of the Ribaat, Tarim, with a main specialization and focus on Shafi’i fiqh. In early 2016, he moved to Amman, Jordan, where he continues advanced studies in a range of Islamic sciences, as well as teaching. Jamir is a qualified homeopath.