Ruling on one who breaks his ritual purity while performing tawaf

Q: The brother whose name is indicated by the initials: Q. N. 'A - from Cairo, says in his question: A man began tawaf, and then he passed wind. Is he required to break off his tawaf, or does he continue?

A: If a person breaks his ritual purity during tawaf by passing wind, urinating, ejaculating, touching his private parts, or something similar, his tawaf is broken off just like prayer. He goes to perform ritual purity, then he resumes tawaf. This is the correct view. There is scholarly disagreement on this issue, but this is the correct view for both tawaf and prayer. This is based on the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): It was narrated by Abu Dawud, and Ibn Khuzaymah graded it as authentic. Tawaf is of the same kind as prayer in general. However, if he breaks it off for a need, for example, if he performed three circuits and then the iqamah was called for prayer, he prays and then returns to start from where he left off. He is not required to return to the Black Stone; rather, he starts from where he left off and completes it. This is contrary to what some scholars said: that he starts from the Black Stone. The correct view is that he is not required to do so, as a group of scholars said. Likewise, if he attended a funeral and prayed over it, or if someone stopped him to speak to him, or if there was a crowd, or something similar, he completes his tawaf, and there is no blame on him for that. And success is from Allah.