45. Can I read the English translation of the Quran without wudu (ablutions)? Can I gift a non-Muslim friend the English translation of the Quran knowing the fact that he’s going to read it without wudu?

Yes, absolutely! The misconception of not reciting the Quran without performing ablutions comes from a misunderstood hadith of Umar ibn al-Khattab.

According to a tradition in Musnad al Bazzar (hadith no. 279), when Umar heard the recitation of the Quran from his sister’s house, he went inside and asked for the pages from which the Quran was being read. At this, his sister asked Umar to first perform wudu (ablutions) before he could read the Quran. This was a psychological gesture from a sister who requested his brother to clean himself before he read the Book of God.

The fact that one does not need to perform ablutions is affirmed by another incident of Umar ibn al-Khattab. During the days when Umar was caliph, he was once sitting with some persons and discussing a verse from the Quran. During discussion, Caliph Umar stood up and took out a copy of the Quran from a shelf and starting reading the verse being discussed. One of the onlookers asked if Caliph Umar had performed ablutions before reading the Quran. Caliph Umar became furious at this and he strongly condemned it by saying:

Did Musaylama (the false prophet) give you a fatwa in this regard? (Musanaf Abdul Razzaq, hadith no. 1318)

In other words, he meant: ‘Which hypocrite told you of this wrong practice?’

When Umar’s sister had asked him to clean himself, she said it out of the leverage she had over her brother. We may not have the same leverage over others in our life. Cleanliness is a form of respect a reader gives to God’s word, however, imposing this practice keeps people away from comfortably reading or gifting the Quran and above all prevents people from knowing the message of God.