Fatwa ID: 03746
Answered by: Maulana Mustafa Umar
Question
I’m going for umrah. We have a small problem with one of the sisters in the group. She can’t keep her wudhu for long as she has a gas problem. It has no smell and no sound, however, as soon as she does wudhu it breaks. Sometimes she can make it through jamaat and it breaks straight after. She is very upset and worried about tawaf. What do I say to her?
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيْم
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Answer:
When one is unable to maintain wuḍū’ due to a chronic illness such as frequent leakage of urine or chronic gas, there is a concession, only if it is probable that this condition will last for an entire prayer period.
When a person is in a chronic state like this where their wuḍū’ is likely to involuntarily break, they are excused and their abnormal excretion will not break their wuḍū’ until the end of the prayer time. If sitting or lying down will prevent this problem from occurring, you must do so and pray that way.
If this is the first time you are experiencing such a condition, it is better to delay your prayer until the end of its time. The wuḍū’ will break due to other reasons not connected with the problem. Also, one only needs to clean the impurity off their clothes once when performing wuḍū’ because this is a constant problem which causes difficulty.
For example, a person with chronic urine leakage should determine whether this condition will last until the end of the prayer time period. It does not mean that urine must constantly come out, but rather that urine comes out at least once unexpectedly during the prayer’s time period. In this case, the person will perform wuḍū’ and may pray. If the urine comes out before or during the prayer, it is to be disregarded since it will not break the wuḍū’. When the time for prayer ends, the wuḍū’ is broken. Through this method, a person with a chronic problem will make only one wuḍū’ for every prayer period and will be considered to be in a state of purity until the end of the prayer time.[1]
Only Allah knows best
Written by Maulana Mustafa Umar
Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah
Darul Ifta Birmingham
