Answer
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
- The gas problem may be due to either medical or diet and food habit. If it is the first, you just need to make wudu before each prayer. But if it is the second, then you need to change your food habits.
- As for washing the feet in the office, you can wipe over the socks.
In responding to your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
You need to consult your physician and find out whether this gas problem is due to your own unbalanced diet or food habits. If that is the case, then you need to undergo the treatment and affect changes in your food habits.
If, however, it is due to a medical condition, then you belong to the category of the excused; all that you need to do is to make wudu close to the prayer you are intending to perform. You do not need to worry about what happens afterwards.
As for washing the feet in the office or work place, you do not need to resort to it, all that you need to do is to make wudu prior to starting from your home, and then put wear steady socks that are not transparent. Then, you do not need to wash your feet in the sink; you simply need to wipe over the socks.
You may do so as long as you are at work (it should not exceed more than twenty-four hours); when you get home, however, you should take them off and wash your feet, while making wudu.
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.