Question

Assalamualaikum wa Rahmatullah

I like to ask you about who can do tayammum.
1) This person is bedridden, he is very unwell. He barely able to go to toilet. He doesn’t have strength to do anything. Can he do tayammum?
2) Second person is suffering from mental illnesses, fatigue, tiredness, weakness, both bowel and urine incontinence so he have to wudu for each salah. Because his weak and unwell doing wudu takes him upto 10 minutes. He also suffers from dry skin, if he wash too much his skin flakes. Can he do tayammum instead of wudu?

Answer

Tayammum is only permissible either when water in unavailable or when the use of water is likely to cause severe physical harm. In both the situations you have mentioned, while performing wudu would be difficult, the conditions for the permissibility of tayammum are not being met. To make the matter easier, however, the bedridden person could be given a spray bottle from which they could spray water on their face, hands and arms up to and including their elbows, and feet up to and including their ankles, and wipe at least a quarter of their head with wet hands; a towel could be placed under the feet and arms to absorb the water that falls off so the bed does not get wet, and if need be every limb can be wiped dry before moving on to the next. Alternatively, this person could use a sponge soaked in water to perform the obligatory acts of wudu mentioned above. As long as two drops of water drip off each limb that must be washed in wudu, the requirement of washing in wudu is fulfilled. It would also be permissible for them to take assistance for any of this from someone.

The patient and their caregivers should plan for this in advance. If in case they fail to do so and the patient does not have access to a spray bottle or a sponge soaked with water, or there is no one to assist them with wudu at that time and the time for a prayer is finishing, they should do tayammum and perform the prayer. If the patient is not even able to find anything to do tayammum with, he should still perform the actions of the prayer in its time and repeat the prayer later with wudu.

البناية شرح الهداية (1/ 517)

جمعوا على أنه لو خاف على نفسه الهلاك أو على عضوه ومنفعته يباح له التيمم

 (مراقي الفلاح ص 28 ط المكتبة العصرية)

وأقله قطرتان في الأصح ولا تكفي الإسالة بدون التقاطر

الدر المختار شرح تنوير الأبصار وجامع البحار (ص: 17)

وأما فاقد الطهورين، ففي الفيض وغيره أنه يتشبه عندهما، وإليه صح رجوع الامام، وعليه الفتوى

Answered by:
Ifta Research Fellow

Checked & Approved by:
Mufti Abdul Rahman Mangera
Mufti Zubair Patel