Purifying Oneself from Major and Minor Impurity when Having a Cast as Per the Shaafi’i School
Fatwa No: 446776

Question

Assalamu alaykum.My question is based on the following(please answer me according to the shafi'i madhab):1.How does a person purifies himself from major impurity with a bandage which he cannot remove if it is on the limb of tayammum?b.What if it outside the the limb of tayammum?2.How does a person do wudu in this state if it is either on the limb of tayammum on not?

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.

Perhaps you mean how the person who has a cast (or splint) should purity himself or perform ablution. The answer is that if the person has a wound and placed a cast (splint) on it, then if he is Junub (in a state of sexual defilement), then he should wipe over the place of the cast and wash the rest of his body, then he performs Tayammum. If he is not Junub, then he wipes on the cast, and then he washes the rest of the parts that must be washed in ablution, and then he performs Tayammum.

If the cast is on one of the parts that must be wiped over in Tayammum, then the correct opinion according to the Shafi’i School is that it is not obligatory to wipe on the cast with soil when performing Tayammum; rather, he wipes over the remaining parts of Tayammum. There is no difference in this case between Ghusl (after being in a state of sexual defilement) and ablution.

Here is a summary of the rulings of these issues according to the Shafi’I School:

An-Nawawi from the Shafi’i School says in Al-Majmoo’:

As for Tayammum by washing the sound body-part with water and wiping over the splint, there are two ways, the soundest and most famous of which – which is authoritatively stated by the majority of the scholars – is that there are two views; the more correct opinion according to the majority of the scholars is that it is obligatory.

Hence, if we say that Tayammum is obligatory, then if the splint is on the place that must be wiped over in Tayammum, then there are two ways which the author of Al-Muhath-thab stated, the most correct of which according to the scholars of the Shafi’i School, is that it is not obligatory to wipe over the cast with soil; rather, he wipes over other parts (of the body).

As for the precise time of wiping over the cast with water, then if he is Junub, he wipes whenever he wishes, as there is no sequence-order in it; if he is in a state where he only needs ablution, then he wipes when he reaches the body-part that must be washed in ablution.

As for the time of Tayammum, if he is Junub, then the well-known and correct opinion, is that if he wishes to perform Tayammum before Ghusl, then he may do so, and if he wishes, he delays it [Tayammum], and if he wishes, he does it in the middle. If he is in a state where he only needs ablution [and not Ghusl], then the correct opinion according to the majority of the scholars of the Shafi’i School is that he does not move from one organ to another until he completes its purity.” [End of quote – abridged]

Allah Knows best.

Related Fatwa