Resuming Tawaaf after interrupting it
21-6-2011 | IslamWeb
Question:
Sir In Islam Assalmu Alikum The cases where tawaf after interruption is resumed from where left off, I want to be clarified about the resumption spot . If someone perform tawaf at the second floor, then interruption occurs .Now tell me ,can’t he resume his tawaf on the mataf area near Holy kaba as close as possible and of course at the parallel equivalent spot aligned with the spot before interruption ?
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.
If a person performs Tawaaf on the ground floor and then he moves to the first or second floor to continue his Tawaaf or vice-versa, then his Tawaaf is valid because the continuity in Tawaaf is a Sunnah (not obligatory) according to many scholars and this is the view we consider to be the preponderant opinion in our Site. Even according to the view that the continuity in Tawaaf is an obligation, the scholars who are of this view permitted a short interval, and if going to the first or second floor or vice-versa was due to overcrowding, then they also permitted doing so due to an excuse.
Al-Kharashi 
from the Maaliki School of jurisprudence, said: “The continuity between the rounds of Tawaaf is a condition (for its validity), and if one separates between them, then this is not valid unless it is for a short interval or due to an excuse while he is in a state of purity.”
Moreover, the Permanent Committee (for Islamic Research and Fataawa) issued a Fatwa which reads: “If a person performs six rounds of Tawaaf on the ground floor and then he continues the seventh round on the top floor, then his Tawaaf is valid and he is not required to do anything.” Besides, separating between one single round is something which some scholars permitted and some others forbade. However, this should not be done except for a need. If someone interrupts one round and then he comes back to continue it, should he continue it from the spot where he interrupted the Tawaaf or should be start again from the Black Stone? The scholars have two different opinions about this. Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen said about a person who interrupted the Tawaaf for a short interval for a valid excuse: “According to the preponderant opinion about which there is no doubt, he does not have to start the round from the beginning; rather, he may continue it from where he interrupted it, and there is no need to start the round anew as it was not void, because if we say that this round was void, then it renders all the seven rounds void, but it neither invalidates all the seven rounds nor does it invalidate the round [in question].”
Allaah Knows best.