As a Hanafi Can I Follow a Maliki Position That Would Make Things Easier for Me?

Answered by Ustadh Tabraze Azam

Question: Assalam alaykum

I have been excused regarding purity (with respect to urine drops) for several years. I contacted Maliki scholars and asked them if it was permissible for me to pray Zuhr and Asr with the same wudu, and then Maghrib and Isha with the same wudu. They said yes.

Would it be permissible for me to follow this fatwa, as a Hanafi?

Answer: Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah,

If you (1) have a clear excuse, and it isn’t just misgivings, and (2) are undergoing hardship in following the Hanafi position, it would be perissible for you to follow another school. In doing so, you would need to ensure that you fulfil any requisite conditions and integrals of the school in question.

Please note that, technically, your ritual ablution (wudu) is not always nullified by the exiting of the time. In the case that you perform the ritual ablution, whilst the excuse is inactive, either: (a) for the excuse itself, or (b) for another reason [such as vomit, for instance], it would remain intact until the excuse or another nullifier manifests.

For example, assume Zaid has a chronic nose bleed which makes him an excused person (ma’dhur). The noon prayer (zuhr) entered at 1pm, and his nose [temporarily] stopped bleeding at 1.15pm. He performed the ritual ablution at 1.20pm [for his chronic excuse], and subsequently prayed at 1.30pm. He then maintained his ablution until the mid-afternoon prayer (‘asr) which entered at 5pm. As long as the excuse didn’t manifest, and he did not nullify his ablution by any other means, he could pray with the very same ablution.

Moreover, it is necessary to take the means to prevent the excuse from happening, by praying seated, or with head movements, for instance, if praying in such manner will prevent the occurrence of the excuse. If nothing helps, you should block the excuse as much as reasonably possible, and then follow the rules related to chronic excuses.

May Allah Most High grant you well-being and ease in your affairs.

[Birgivi/Ibn ‘Abidin, Manhal al-Waridin; Tahtawi, Hashiyat al-Tahtawi ‘ala Maraqi al-Falah; ‘Ala’ al-Din ‘Abidin, al-Hadiyya al-‘Ala’iyya (47)]

Please also see: The Fiqh of Chronic Excuses and Ablution and: A Reader on Ritual Purity, Urine Leakage and Misgivings and: A Reader on Waswasa (Baseless Misgivings)

And Allah Most High alone knows best.

wassalam,
[Ustadh] Tabraze Azam

Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Ustadh Tabraze Azam holds a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Leicester, where he also served as the President of the Islamic Society. He memorised the entire Qur’an in his hometown of Ipswich at the tender age of sixteen, and has since studied the Islamic Sciences in traditional settings in the UK, Jordan and Turkey. He is currently pursuing advanced studies in Jordan, where he is presently based with his family.