Praise be to Allaah.
It is not haraam for a man to urinate standing
up, but it is Sunnah for him to urinate sitting down, because ‘Aa’ishah
(may Allaah be pleased with her) said: “Whoever tells you that the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah
be upon him) used to urinate standing up, do not believe him. He only
ever used to urinate sitting down.” (Narrated by al-Tirmidhi, al-Tahaarah,
12; he said, this is the most saheeh report on this topic. It was also
classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh Sunan al-Tirmidhi,
no. 11). And because this is more concealing, and it reduces the risk
of any drops of urine splashing up onto him.
It was narrated from ‘Umar, Ibn ‘Umar and
Zayd ibn Thaabit (may Allaah be pleased with them) that it is allowed
to urinate standing up on the condition that there is no risk of drops
of urine splashing onto one’s body or clothes, and that one does not
expose one's ‘awrah, because al-Bukhaari and Muslim narrated from Hudhayfah
(may Allaah be pleased with him) that the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) came to a garden belonging
to some people, and urinated standing up. There is no contradiction
between this and the hadeeth of ‘Aa’ishah (may Allaah be pleased with
her), because it is possible that the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) did that because he was
in a place where he was unable to sit down, or he did that to show the
people that it is not haraam. This does not contradict the basic principle
mentioned by ‘Aa’ishah (may Allaah be pleased with her), that he
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) urinated sitting down, because
it is Sunnah, it is not something waajib (obligatory) which it is forbidden
to go against. And Allaah knows best.