Can I Chew Paan While Reciting the Quran and Does It Invalidate the Wudu?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question

What is the Hanafi ruling regarding chewing paan (Beetle nut and paan leaf) while reciting the Quran?

Does it invalidate your wudu? Is it permissible to chew while reciting the Quran?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

It is considered against the etiquettes of recitation of the Qur’an to eat, drink, speak, or anything that would prevent someone from focusing on the recitation. [al-Nawawi, al-Tibyan]

Chewing paan does not invalidate the ritual ablution (wudu). [Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah]

If tobacco is added to the pan, it would be prohibitively disliked to consume. [al-Nahlawi, al-Durar al-Mubaha]

I hope this helps.
Allah A’lam

[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch is a teacher of Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he then completed four years at the Darul Uloom seminary in New York where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences. He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he stayed for three years studying in Dar Al-Mustafa under some of the greatest scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib. In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Qur’an and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Qur’anic exegesis, Islamic history, and a number of texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.