Fatwa ID: 03307

Answered by:  Maulana Imran Mughal​

Question

A sister was unaware of the Shariah rulings regarding obligatory ghusl due to menstruation. For a number of years (about 8 years, mainly during her teenage years) she was fasting in the month of Ramadhan but would just have a normal bath, without taking water up to the soft portion of the nose or gargling. Maybe she did clean the nose and mouth in ablution, but there is no recollection of this. My question is that does this sister need to perform qadha salah for all those years of not knowing the fiqh of ghusl.

Would she also need to repeat the entire fasts for those mentioned years as well? The sister wasn't very practising back then, nor was she provided with the essential ilm to practice these things properly. There wasn't much understanding of the deen until the hidayah came. She didn't purposefully neglect the fiqh rulings. She knows the faraidh of ghusl now but wants to make up for her past errors.
What should she do?

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيْم

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful 

Answer

In an obligatory ghusl there are three fardh acts: washing the entire body, gargling and taking water up the nose. If any of these three were not completed then ghusl has not been completed and therefore, any prayers/ that have been done without complete ghusl will need to be repeated. The fasts, however, does not need to be repeated. 

However, in a sunnah ghusl gargling and taking water up the nose are not conditions and therefore the ghusl is valid.[1]

Only Allah knows best

Written by Maulana Imran Mughal

Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Darul Ifta Birmingham