Page 125 - Seekers Guide Book

The Seeker’s Guide

45 Can I read the English translation of
( )
the Quran without wudu ablutions ?
-
Can I gift a non Muslim friend the

English translation of the Quran

knowing the fact that he’s going to

read it without wudu?

es, absolutely! The misconception of not reciting the
YQuran without performing ablutions comes from a
misunderstood hadith of Umar ibn al-Khattab.

According to a tradition in Musnad al Bazzar (hadith no.
279), when Umar heard the recitation of the Quran from
his sister’s house, he went inside and asked for the pages
from which the Quran was being read. At this, his sister
asked Umar to first perform wudu (ablutions) before he
could read the Quran. This was a psychological gesture
from a sister who requested his brother to clean himself
before he read the Book of God.

The fact that one does not need to perform ablutions is
affirmed by another incident of Umar ibn al-Khattab.
During the days when Umar was caliph, he was once
sitting with some persons and discussing a verse from the
Quran. During discussion, Caliph Umar stood up and
took out a copy of the Quran from a shelf and starting
reading the verse being discussed. One of the onlookers
asked if Caliph Umar had performed ablutions before
reading the Quran. Caliph Umar became furious at this
and he strongly condemned it by saying:

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