Date : 12-04-2009

Question :

Does eating camel meat invalidate one's Wudou?


The Answer :

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of The Worlds, and may His peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all of his family and companions.



The majority of the Hanafi, Maliki and Shafi jurists are of the view that eating camel meat doesn't invalidate a person's Wudou (Ablution). In this regard, Al-Imam An-Nawawi said: "Eating cooked and raw meat doesn`t invalidate a person's Wudou.Yet, there are two opinions regarding camel meat in specific: The most prevalent opinion of the majority of the Shafie jurists, which is the newest, is that camel meat doesn`t render Wudou invalid, but the less prevalent opinion, which is the oldest, is that it does. According to the majority of the Shafie jurists, the latter opinion is weak." [Al-Majmooa' vol.2/pp.69].



The Sharia text proving the first opinion is that a man asked Jabir bin `Abdullah about performing ablution after taking a cooked meal. He replied: "It is not essential," and added: "We never used to get such kind of food during the lifetime of the Prophet except rarely; and if at all we got such a dish, we did not have any handkerchiefs to wipe our hands with except the palms of our hands, our forearms and our feet. We would perform the prayer thereafter with-out performing new ablution." [Related by Bukhari].



In Sahih Muslim: The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) took meat from the bone, and offered prayer without performing ablution, and he, in fact, did not even touch water. As for Jaber Ibn Somra's (May Allah be pleased with him) narration: "I was sitting with the Prophet (PBUH) and a man asked him (PBUH): am I required to perform Wudou after eating sheep's meat? He replied: (Perform Wudou after eating sheep's meat if you want to or don't if you don`t want to); then the man asked:" Am I required to perform Wudou after eating camel meat? The prophet (PBUH) replied: "Yes, perform Wudou after eating camel meat." [Related by Muslim], Muslim scholars have given two answers: The first one is that the aforementioned Hadith was abrogated by Jaber Ibn Abdullah`s (May Allah be pleased with them) narration in which he said (What means): "The last ruling as regards cooked food is that a person isn’t required to perform Wudou." [Abu Dawood].



The second one is that the interpretation of Wudou in the aforementioned Hadith is that a person should wash his hands and rinse out his mouth; especially after eating camel meat since it contains too much fat. Furthermore, the Prophet (PBUH) forbade sleeping if a person had grease on his hands or in his mouth to avoid scorpions and the like." [Sunan Abi Dawood].



In conclusion, to be on the safe side, it is recommended to make Wudou after eating camel meat to avoid the disagreement. This is according to old Shafie doctrine and the reliable opinion of the Hanafie school of thought. And Allah Knows Best.