Standing & Urinating (And: Imitating Unbelievers)

Sidi, someone said, “Standing and urinating is prohibited as it is also the custom of the Kuffar. However, if one is unable to sit and relieve himself, for example, broken and plastered leg, then he will be excused for standing and urinating.” Is this true?

In the Name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,

Walaikum assalam,

As they say, “Exalted is the One who errs not!” Unfortunately, what this ‘someone’ said is not the transmitted position of the Hanafi school.

Imam `Ala’ al-Din al-Haskafi mentions, among the matters disliked when relieving oneself,

“And to urinate standing… without need”

Ibn Abidin al-Shami> comments,

“This is slightly not prohibitively disliked.” [Radd al-Muhtar, 1: 344, similar texts may be found in the Hashiya of al-Tahtawi on Maraqi al-Falah, and the Durar and its glosses]

That is, it is slightly disliked without need, and not even disliked if there is some need, as long as one avoids getting actual splashes of urine on one’s clothes or body.

Note it is not prohibited to do what the unbelievers do, unless it is something that is only done by them such that it is one of the signs of the ways of unbelievers, or if one does what they do thinking it is better than the ways of the believers, or if one does so seeking to be like them, as Ibn Abidin and others mention.

Wassalam,
Faraz Rabbani.