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Fatwa CenterInterrupting the Tawaaf for no valid reason
Question
Assalamu Alaikum Can you discontinue your tawaf and restart fresh one in case you forget istilam ,Idhtiba ,doubt regarding no of round or you have doubt whether you started from Hajre aswad or not ? or can you repeat tawaf in case of above said circumstances ? I understand that if you have doubt regarding any condition which are responsible for a tawaf to be valid , then you should discontinue and if performed then you should repeat .Also, in case of no of round, take the lesser one.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
It is not permissible for a person who is performing the Tawaaf to interrupt his Tawaaf for no valid reason just with the intention to repeat it, as this is invalidating an act of worship after having commenced it and this leads to opening the door to whispering. Allaah Says (what means): {…and do not invalidate your deeds.}[Quran 47:33]
Imaam Ash-Shaafi’i 
said in his book “Al-Umm”: “I do not give him [i.e. the person performing Tawaaf] a license to interrupt his Tawaaf of the House (of Allaah) except for a valid reason.”
Besides, touching or kissing the Black Stone or pointing to it during Tawaaf is a Sunnah and not a condition or a Waajib [obligation] of Tawaaf, so one should not interrupt his Tawaaf because of not touching or kissing the Black Stone, and whoever fails to touch the Black Stone or to point to it, his Tawaaf is valid and he is not obligated to make it up. Likewise, Idhtibaa’ [man’s uncovering his right shoulder] is a Sunnah in Tawaaf Al-Qudoom [the Tawaaf upon arriving in Makkah], so whoever performs Tawaaf without Idhtibaa’, his Tawaaf is valid and he is not required to do anything.
Similarly, whoever doubts about the number of rounds of Tawaaf he had made, he is not obligated to make up the Tawaaf from the beginning; rather, he has to act on the least he is certain of. Also, if he doubts commencing from the Black Stone, he should cancel the round and perform a new round instead of it, and he does not have to start Tawaaf anew from the beginning.
To sum up, all what the questioner mentioned is not considered a valid reason for interrupting the Tawaaf and performing it again from the beginning. Hence, we advise him to avoid whispers as this is his third question about this matter. Rather, he should know that doubting about an act of worship after having finished it does not affect its validity, so he should avoid doubts and whispers. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 87525.
Allaah Knows best.
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