Maliki School: Allowed to Offer Salah Anywhere

 

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

الصلاة والسلام عليك يا سيدي يا رسول الله

وعلى آلك واصحابك يا سيدي يا نور الله

فداك ابي وامي يا رسول الله

In the Name of Allah, the Rahman, the Merciful

Sayyiduna Ibn Umar رضى الله عنهما narrates that the Holy Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم:

نَهَى أَنْ يُصَلَّى فِي سَبْعَةِ مَوَاطِنَ فِي الْمَزْبَلَةِ وَالْمَجْزَرَةِ وَالْمَقْبُرَةِ وَقَارِعَةِ الطَّرِيقِ وَفِي الْحَمَّامِ وَفِي مَعَاطِنِ الإِبِلِ وَفَوْقَ ظَهْرِ بَيْتِ اللَّهِ

Prohibited offering Salah in seven places: the dung heap, the slaughterhouse, the cemetery, the pathway, the bathroom, the camel’s den and on top of the surface of the House of Allah (Jami at-Tirmidhi)

The Hadith was graded Hasan by the Salafi, ghair muqallid Zubair Ali Zai:

And this is understood because the Salah is a sacred act of worship of Allah and it is not befitting to offer it in a place that is considered unworthy for the remembrance of Allah, such as the dung heap or garbage dumps, the slaughterhouse, the camel’s den and the bathroom. These are generally places where there is filth. Even if one is sure that the place one is offering Salah in these areas is clean it is still not befitting to worship in such a place.

In the Mosaic Law the concept of tum’at met or uncleanliness of the corpse meant that they would become defiled and require ritual purification when coming into contact with a corpse. The Priests were forbidden from entering any enclosure containing a corpse, or an open air cemetery except at a distance of at least four cubits. It seems for this reason that at the beginning of the Prophet Muhammad’s ministry there was a prohibition of visiting the cemetery:

نَهَيْتُكُمْ عَنْ زِيَارَةِ الْقُبُورِ فَزُورُوهَا

I forbade you from visiting the graves but now visit them (Sahih Muslim)

And that it is recommended to perform ghusl after washing a corpse in preparation for its burial, and to peform wudu if one carried the corpse, as the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said:

مَنْ غَسَّلَ الْمَيِّتَ فَلْيَغْتَسِلْ وَمَنْ حَمَلَهُ فَلْيَتَوَضَّأْ

Whoever washed the corpse should perform ghusl (bath) and whoever carried it should perform wudu (Sunan Abi Dawud)

With regard to offering Salah on the road that has traffic, it appears that is prohibited as it causes inconvenience to the people, and the prohibition of offering Salah on the roof of the Ka’bah is because one is not facing the Qiblah.

However, the Malikis argue that the Hadith prohibiting offering of Salah in these seven places is weak and that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم allowed Salah to be offered anywhere when he said:

الْأَرْضُ كلهَا مَسْجِدا

The entire Earth is a Masjid (place of prostration)

Yet we Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi school interpret that as a general statement, with obvious exceptions as mentioned in the Hadith prohibiting offering Salah in the seven places.

Ahmad ad-Dardir of the Maliki school said that it is allowed to offer Salah at the cemetery, the bathroom, the dung heap, the pathway and the slaughterhouse:

‌وجازت بمقبرة وحمام ومزبلة ومحجة طريق ومجزرة

(ash-Sharh us-Saghir, v.1, p.267)