Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
My aunt is undergoing cancer treatment and wanted to know if she can perform tayumum instead of wudu in order to read her salah and touch the quran. She says that due to the treatment she finds it very difficult to move excessively and she keeps getting sick whilst performing wudu. she performs her salah sitting on a chair since she can’t perform them normaly. She wants to know if under such circumstances she can perform tayumum rather than wudu.
Walaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,
I pray that this finds you well, and in the best of health and spirits. May Allah grant you all good and success in this life and the next.
If there is undue difficulty or hardship in performing wudu by oneself, then one can perform dry ablutions (tayammum), as in the case of your aunt. (May Allah grant her health, wellbeing, and healing.) [ Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah ]
Tayammum is straightforward: one must wipe one’s hands on a stone (even if small and without dust), and wipe one’s face completely; and wipe one’s hands again on stone, and wipe both arms completely and thoroughly. [al-Hadiyya al-`Ala’iyya]
And Allah alone gives success.
Faraz Rabbani