Urinates While Standing
Fatwa No: 414052

Question

Is it permissible for a person to urinate standing up? I get disgusted very easily and therefore I am not able to sit on toilet seats in toilets at work or anywhere outside of my home. If I urinate standing up (I don't perform ghusl) can I perform wodoo and then pray? I am new to islam and I find the rulings on tahara very difficult

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

First of all, we praise Allah, The Almighty, for guiding you to Islam and ask Him to bless us and you with steadfastness (on the truth) until the day we meet Him.

You should know that the Sharee‘ah rulings pertinent to Tahaarah (ritual purity) and all the other legislations of Allah, The Exalted, do not cause any hardship to His slaves. Rather, they are intrinsically easy and doable. Allah, The Almighty, Says (what means):

·   {Allah intends for you ease and does not intend for you hardship.} [Quran 2: 185]

·   {…and [He] has not placed upon you in the religion any difficulty.} [Quran 22: 78]

Hence, there is no Sharee‘ah rulings that are intrinsically difficult and onerous in themselves.

As for urinating whilst standing, if you are safe from having any urine spraying on your clothes, then there is nothing wrong with it (i.e., no sin). It was reported that Huthayfah said: “I was once with the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, when he came to the dumping ground belonging to some people, and he urinated while standing.” [Al-Bukhari]

This Hadeeth proves that it is permissible to urinate in a standing position. However, if you would not be safe from having urine spray on your clothes, then you should urinate in a sitting position instead in order to avoid contaminating your clothes with impurity. If you perform prayer while wearing clothes that are contaminated with urine, your prayer is invalid.

According to the reported guidance of the Prophet he mostly urinated in a sitting position, and this is why Muslim jurists said that it is recommended that a person urinates while sitting because when he urinates in a standing position, urine might soil his body or clothes, or someone could see his exposed ‘Awrah.

It is a must to perform Istinjaa’ (wet purification) with water or Istijmaar (dry purification) with tissues or the like, because cleaning oneself from the impurity after answering the call of nature is obligatory according to the majority of the scholars.

Allah Knows best.

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