Please contribute generously in order to ensure the continuity of our website InshaAllah.
If I am at work or travelling, then the time for prayer comes, but the water is ten minutes or a quarter of an hour away from me, is it permissible for me to do tayammum or should I wait until I reach the water?
Praise be to Allah.
This distance is regarded as not too far away according to custom, so what you must do is go to the water and do wudu’ with the water, or do ghusl if you are required to do ghusl. It is not permissible for you to do tayammum in this case, because if something is ten minutes away or a quarter of an hour away, that is customarily regarded as being nearby, and is not regarded as being far away. So there is no excuse not to do wudu’. Rather whether you are at work or travelling, you must go to the water and do wudu’ as prescribed in Islamic teachings, and if you are junub you must do ghusl and pray. This distance is not an excuse for doing tayammum, because according to custom it is regarded as being close by. End quote.
Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn Baz (may Allah have mercy on him).
Fatawa Nur ‘ala ad-Darb (2/653).