[Is the Prostration of Recitation Allowed without Ablution?]

Question: A man hears a passage of the Quran that contains a verse of prostration and he prostrates without having performed ablution. Is he thereby sinful or unbelieving, and does that affect the validity of his marriage?

Answer: He is not deemed an unbeliever, nor is his marriage annulled. Most scholars, however, hold that he incurs sin. Some followers of Abu Hanifah have reported that anyone who offers a prayer for which purification is, by unanimous agreement, a prerequisite—such as the five obligatory prayers—without ablution becomes an unbeliever by that act; if so, he is an apostate, and according to Abu Hanifah an apostate’s marriage is automatically dissolved. Yet this verdict of unbelief is not transmitted from Abu Hanifah himself or from his two principal disciples; it is only found among later adherents. The majority of scholars maintain that the offender should be disciplined but is not to be declared an unbeliever unless he regards the act as lawful and makes a mockery of the prayer.