#120: Ruling on Forgetting to say Basmallah at the start of Wudhu.
When you forget to say Bismillah at the beginning when you start performing Ablution can you say it when you remember at the middle of the ablution
*ANSWER*
Wa alaykum salām Warahmatullāh Wabarakātuh
Alhamdulillāh
The majority of the Ulamā have stated that beginning the Wudhū with Bismillāh is a highly recommended act ( _Sunnah Mu’aqqadah_ ) and not a Wājib or a condition for the authenticity of the Wudhū.
As for the Hadīth that was recorded by Imām Ahmad – rahimahullāh – in the Musnad where the Rasūl – salallāhu alayhi wasallam – said:
لا وضوء لمن لم يذكر اسم الله عليه.
_”There is no perfection of Wudhū for the one who did not mention the Name of Allāh on it.”_
It is graded as Sahih by the Muhaddithīn and is only used by the Fuqahā to refer to incompletion of reward. This means that whosoever did not begin with the basmallah is deficient in rewards.
Shaykhu Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah – rahimahullāh – said in the _Majmū’a_:
( الأصح عدم اشتراط التسمية على الوضوء،وذهب إلى ذلك كثير من العلماء المحققين كابن المنذر وابن خزيمة والبيهقي وغيرهم إلى أن التسمية على الوضوء مستحبة وليست بواجبة
_”What is most sound is that it isn’t a condition to say the tasmiyya before the Wudhū. And many of the Muhaqqiqīn among the Ulamā took this position such as Ibn Al-Mundhir, Ibn Khuzaymah, Al-Bayhaqī and others, that the tasmiyyah before the Wudhū is a Mustahab and not a Wājib.”_
That said, there isn’t anything wrong in a Wudhū in which you forgot to say the Basmalla at its start.
And it is permissible to say it in the middle of the Wudhū if you forgot by using the wording: _Bismillāhi Awwalan Wa Ākhiran_…
Allāh A’alam
Bārakallāhu fīkum
Jazākumullāhu Khayran
20th Safar 1438.
