He—may Allah have mercy on him—was asked about praying in a bathhouse.

He answered:

In Sunan Abī Dāwūd and elsewhere, Abū Sa‘īd narrated that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“The entire earth is a place of prayer except graveyards and bathhouses.”

The leading hadith scholars have graded this report authentic. If, however, little time remains, should one pray in the bathhouse, or let the prayer time expire until one leaves and prays outside? There are two opinions on this within the school of Ahmad and among others. Thus, one should not pray in a bathhouse.

Anyone in a state of major ritual impurity who needs to use a bathhouse should perform the ritual bath at the beginning of the prayer time, then leave and pray. If he then wishes to complete his washing with lote-tree leaves or the like, he may return to the bathhouse.

The majority of scholars hold that prayer there is prohibited: either it is forbidden or invalid, as in the well-known position of Ahmad’s school and others, or it is merely disliked, as in the school of al-Shāfi‘ī and others.