How to Continue Tawaf If One Stops for Prayer or Turns toward the Kaaba?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question

In tawaf, I understand I must always keep my left shoulder facing the Kaaba. What happens if I stop to join a fard prayer or need to turn back to pick up something I dropped? Do I restart the tawaf, repeat the circuit, or go back to the point I “broke” the circuit and continue from there? Does it matter in what circuit the “break” happens?

If I complete tawaf after praying asr but before maghrib, is it ok to pray the two raka’s behind Maqam Ibrahim then, or should I wait until maghrib has come in to avoid praying in a disliked time?

As a Hanafi, if I combine prayers according to the rules of the Shafi’i school, is it ok to pray witr after combining maghrib+isha in the time of maghrib?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

If one stops their tawaf for prayer, turns their chest towards the Kaaba, or stops for any other reason, they continue the tawaf by starting back where they stopped and continuing from there. It is cautious to start slightly before where one stopped so as to guarantee a complete circuit. [Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]

If one performs tawaf after ‘Asr, they must delay the post-Tawaf Sunna prayers till after Maghrib so as not to pray in the disliked time. [Ibid.]

If one combines Maghrib and Isha, in Maghrib time, according to the Shafi school, it is more cautious about praying Witr after Isha time enters.

Hope this helps
Allah knows best

[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch is a teacher of Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he then completed four years at the Darul Uloom seminary in New York where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences. He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he stayed for three years studying in Dar Al-Mustafa under some of the greatest scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib. In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Qur’an and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Qur’anic exegesis, Islamic history, and a number of texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.