Short answer
It is makruh to pray in a toilet or bathroom in the Hanafi school, though the prayer is valid if the spot is clean. Pray anywhere else if you can: a hallway, bedroom or office corner is better. In the Hanbali school, prayer in a toilet room is not valid at all.
Prayer in a place for relieving oneself, or in a bathhouse, is makruh because it is a place of impurity, but the prayer is valid if the spot where you stand and prostrate is pure. When there is truly no other place, praying there is better than missing the prayer.
Other madhhabs
- Hanbali
- Prayer in a toilet, bathhouse, graveyard or camel pen is not valid, even on a clean mat.
Explanation
The Prophet ﷺ said that the whole earth is a place of prayer except the graveyard and the bathhouse (hammam). Scholars applied this even more strongly to the toilet, a place for relieving oneself where the sunnah is not to remember Allah aloud.
What this means today:
- A room with a toilet: makruh to pray in it. Find another spot.
- On the toilet seat: do not pray sitting on a toilet. If illness keeps you from standing, pray in a chair or bed outside it.
- A clean bathroom when there is no other option, such as a cramped workplace: praying there is better than letting the prayer time pass, as long as the spot is clean.
- A changing room or locker room: not a toilet; prayer there is fine if the floor is clean.
Before praying, check the spot. Bathroom floors are often splashed; if you are not sure, put down a clean mat or towel. A mat makes the place of prostration clean, but the dislike of praying in a toilet room remains, so use it only when you must.
For the purity side of prayer, see praying without wudu, and for the prayer itself, how to pray.
The evidence
Sunan Abi Dawud 492
Grading to be checked... الأرض كلها مسجد إلا الحمام والمقبرة ...
"The whole earth is a place of prayer except the bathhouse and the graveyard."
Places of impurity are excluded from the normal places of prayer.
Sahih al-Bukhari 335
Sahih... وجعلت لي الأرض مسجدا وطهورا ...
"The earth has been made for me a place of prayer and a means of purification."
The general rule that prayer can be offered anywhere clean.
Where the ruling is recorded
- al-Durr al-Mukhtar with Radd al-Muhtar, Kitab al-Salah, chapter on what is disliked in prayer. Disliked places of prayer include the toilet and the bathhouse.
- al-Mughni (Ibn Qudama), Kitab al-Salah, section on places where prayer is not valid. The Hanbali view that prayer in a toilet is invalid.
Checked by our team. For a more accurate answer to your own situation, consult a scholar. Quran translation by Sahih International. Hadith Arabic from the standard editions of the six books and the Muwatta, with gradings as recorded there; the English is our own rendering. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.