has no water or fears harm from using it, then, if he cannot enter the bathhouse because he lacks the admission fee or for some other reason, he should pray after performing dry ablution. It is not disliked for a man to have intercourse with his wife in these circumstances. Rather, he may do so, just as he may have intercourse with her while travelling, with both then praying after performing dry ablution. If the man or woman can perform the ritual bath and then pray outside the bathhouse, they should do so.

If that is not possible—for example, if he does not wake at the beginning of dawn, and searching for water would cause the prescribed time to expire, or if finding firewood to heat the water or going to the bathhouse would cause him to miss the prescribed time—then, according to the majority of scholars, he should pray after performing dry ablution. However, some later scholars of the schools of al-Shāfi‘ī and Ahmad said that he should set about obtaining the means of purification even if the prescribed time expires. They said the same about occupying himself with sewing clothing, learning the signs indicating the direction of prayer, and similar matters.

This view is mistaken. Its logical implication is that a traveller should delay prayer until after its prescribed time so that he can pray with ablution, and that a person without clothing should delay prayer until after its prescribed time so that he can pray clothed. This contradicts the consensus of the Muslims. Rather, a person must pray within the prescribed time as best he can, and whatever obligatory elements of prayer he is unable to fulfil are waived.

But if he wakes near the end of the prescribed time, or if he sets about drawing water from