Saying the Basmalah at the Start of Wuḍūʾ

The disagreement

They agreed on the obligation of wuḍūʾ for prayer, and they differed regarding the ruling of saying the Basmalah before beginning wuḍūʾ, into two opinions.

The opinions

• The Basmalah is from the obligations of wuḍūʾ

Aḥmad / Ahl al-Ẓāhir

• The Basmalah is from the recommended acts of wuḍūʾ

Abū Ḥanīfah / Mālik / al-Shāfiʿī / Aḥmad (a narration)

Reason for the disagreement

Their disagreement in authenticating the ḥadīth:

«لا وضوء لمن لم يذكر اسم الله»

([Reported by: ] Aḥmad / Abū Dāwūd / al-Tirmidhī / Ibn Mājah / al-Nasāʾī / and others; and it has supporting narrations, and it was authenticated by Ibn Ḥajar, al-Ghumārī, and al-Albānī).

Effect of the disagreement

• Wuḍūʾ is invalid for the one who leaves the Basmalah as per the first opinion
• Wuḍūʾ is valid for the one who leaves the Basmalah as per the second opinion

Evidence

First opinion

• His ﷺ statement:

«لا وضوء لمن لم يذكر اسم الله»

The ḥadīth is explicit in the obligation of the Basmalah.

Second opinion

• The generality of His statement تعالى:

﴿إِذَا قُمْتُمْ إِلَى الصَّلَاةِ فَاغْسِلُوا وُجُوهَكُمْ﴾ [المائدة: ٦]

The verse did not mention the Basmalah.

• The ḥadīth of the Bedouin, that he ﷺ said to him:

“Perform wuḍūʾ as Allah commanded you.”

(reported by Abū Dāwūd / al-Tirmidhī – who declared it ḥasan – and authenticated by al-Ḥākim).

If the Basmalah were obligatory, he would have clarified it, since this is a مقام بيان (context of explanation and teaching).

The preferred opinion

The second opinion: (the Basmalah is recommended).

Ibn Rushd said: The ḥadīth «لا وضوء لمن لم يذكر اسم الله» is not authentic according to the scholars of transmission, or it is حمل على الذكر (interpreted as remembrance in general), or carried upon recommendation.

The majority carried it upon negation of completeness, not negation of validity.

References

Bidāyat al-Mujtahid wa Nihāyat al-Muqtaṣid (1/39), Badā’iʿ al-Ṣanā’iʿ (1/96), al-Maʿūnah (1/15), ʿAqd al-Jawāhir (1/36), al-Hidāyah (1/17), Wiqāyat al-Ṭālib (1/65), al-Bayān (1/108), al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr (1/375), al-Mughnī (1/145), Sharḥ Ibn Zāḥim (1/114).