Answered by Shaykh Amjad Rasheed
Translated by Ustadha Shazia Ahmad
If a person wakes up in the winter towards the end of the time for the dawn prayer in a state of sex-related major impurity (janaba) and wants to perform a purificatory bath but the water is so cold that it would harm him if he used it and heating the water would take so long that the time for the prayer would expire, then can he perform tayammum instead?
The answer of the erudite scholar Shihab al-Ramli is that whoever is able to heat the water is obligated to heat it even if the remaining time for the prayer is so slight that heating the water will result in its expiry. Such a person may not pray in the prayer time by performing dry ablution (tayammum).
Ibn Qasim said in his super-commentary on the Tuhfa (1/347), “And this is obvious because he has water available to him and is able to purify himself.”
[Shaykh Amjad adds:] If the resulting delay of the prayer beyond its time was not because of his remissness, he is excused [in performing the prayer outside its time].
الجواب: الذي أفتى به العلامةُ الشهاب الرملي أن مَن وجد ما يُسَخِّنُ به الماء لكن ضاق الوقت بحيث لو اشتغل بالتسخين خرج الوقت؛ وجب عليه الاشتغالُ به وإن خرج الوقت وليس له التيممُ ليصلي به في الوقت، قال ابن قاسم في “حاشية التحفة”(1/347): وهو ظاهرٌ؛ لأنه واجد للماء قادر على الطهارة. اهـ قلتُ: وإن كان تأخيره من غير تقصير فهو معذور.