Question: If one has not met the conditions for being regarded as a person with a chronic excuse (‘udhr) in the Hanafi Madhhab yet, should one wait until just before the end of salat time if one’s excuse discontinues? If one, for example, has a wound oozing discharge and if it takes much or little time for it to heal and if one follows the ruling of the Maliki Madhhab because of it, should one perform ghusl, in addition to wudu’, according to the rules of the Maliki Madhhab?
ANSWER
If one met the conditions for being regarded as a person with a chronic excuse (‘udhr), one would not have to wait until just before the end of the salat time. One would perform wudu’ and offer the salat when the time for it starts. However, when one experiences a chronic discharge for the first time and as one does not know the time when it will discontinue, one must wait until just before the end of the time for that salat [until 10-15 minutes left]. Then one performs wudu’ and offers salat. If one experiences such a problem, for example, when the time for Salat al-‘Asr or Salat al-Isha has started, one must wait until just before the time for Salat al-Maghrib or just before the time for imsak respectively.

It is written in Se’adet-i Ebediyye:

“If the excuse begins long enough to perform the fard salat after the arrival of the time for it, one waits until it is nearly the end of the time and, if it has not stopped, performs wudu’ at the end of the time and offers the salat of the time. After the time for the salat is over, if it stops within the time of the next salat, one repeats one’s former salat. If it never stops from the beginning until the end of the time of the second salat, this means that one has become a person with an excuse and will not have to repeat one’s former salat.”

Alternatively, in such cases, in order to avoid delaying Salat al-‘Asr until just before the time for Salat al-Maghrib and to avoid offering Salat al-Isha after midnight, one can perform wudu’ and offer the salat without having to wait until the end of the time by following the ruling of the Maliki Madhhab. If one has not done anything that nullifies one’s wudu’, one can perform the five salats with this wudu’.

Secondly, if one is working, shopping, traveling, or doing some other activity that prevents one from taking ghusl according to the rules of the Maliki Madhhab, one can still follow the ruling of the Maliki Madhhab though one’s ghusl does not meet the conditions set by it. If one has the chance to take ghusl, one must perform ghusl because one, when following the ruling of the Maliki Madhhab due to such a problem, must fulfill the conditions set by the Maliki Madhhab for ghusl, wudu’, and salat as these three things are interdependent.