QUESTION:
What do the scholars of the Din and muftis of the Sacred Law state regarding the following issue: I have had a gas problem for many years. I have to do Wudū’ 5-6 times to pray one salāh, and I also have a lot of [satanic] thoughts & whispers. Will my salāh be fulfilled in this manner?
Questioner: Ahmad from England
ANSWER:
بسم اللہ الرحمن الرحیم
الجواب بعون الملک الوھاب اللھم ھدایۃ الحق والصواب
Whenever your Wudū’ becomes invalid, one should perform Wudū’ afresh and then pray salāh. Then if Wudū’ becomes invalid during salāh, one should redo Wudū’ and start salāh. One can continue with salāh from the point which Wudū’ became invalid after performing fresh Wudū’, but this has a few conditions, which are difficult to act upon nowadays. Thus, salāh should be prayed from the beginning; your salāh will be fulfilled by praying in this manner, and one should keep in mind that if there is enough time for a person to perform Wudū’ and pray his fard in the whole time period [i.e. the beginning to end time] of salāh, then one is not legally excused as per Islamic Law, therefore one will actually have to perform Wudū’ afresh each time it becomes invalid.
However, if there is not enough time for someone to pray salāh, meaning that while one is performing Wudū’, the Wudū’ becomes invalid, and the whole of the salāh time passes by in this state [from start to end], then one is regarded as excused. So then Wudū’ is to be performed once and then one may perform salāh; this Wudū’ will remain valid up until the end time of that particular salāh.
Just as it is stated in Bahār-e-Sharī’at that any person who has such an illness, wherein one complete time of salāh has gone by in a manner where he was not able to make Wudū’ and perform salāh (due to the illness) then such a person is regarded as a Ma’dhūr [excused]; the ruling applicable to him is the same. In other words, he should make Wudū’ in the time of that particular salāh and he may read as many salāh as he wishes with that one Wudū’ in the time of that one salāh. That illness will not cause his Wudū’ to be nullified, such as in the case if he has an illness where droplets of urine are discharged, or he has chronic diarrhoea, or an illness where he always passes air (flatulence), or fluid that flows from an infected eye, or fluid which continuously flows out of a sore or abscess, or fluid which is discharged from the ear, naval or breast. All these are illnesses which cause the Wudū’ to be nullified. However, if one complete time of salāh passes in a condition that even though one makes a concerted effort to fulfil it, he is still not able to keep his Wudū’ long enough to make the salāh within the prescribed time and the time lapses in this way then in this case the excuse is established.
[Bahār-e-Sharī’at, vol 1, part 2, pg 385]
One should not pay any attention to [evil] thoughts & whispers because these are from the devil. A proven & established cure from whispers is that the person suffering from this problem is to pray the following,
“آمَنْتُ بِاللہِ وَرَسُوْلِہٖ ھُوَ الْاَوَّلُ وَالْاٰخِرُ وَالظَّاہِرُ وَالبَاطِنُ وَھُوَ بِکُلِّ شَیْءٍ عَلِیْم”
“I believe in Allāh and His Messenger; it is He who is the initial & end, hidden & apparent and the Knower of everything.”
Allāh willing, all of these kinds of thoughts & whispers will be rid of; in fact, these thoughts & whispers go away even by just praying “اٰمَنْتُ بِاللہ وَرَسُوْلِہٖ”.
Just as it is stated in Hadīth that the Noble Prophet ﷺ stated that,
“لَا يَزَالُ النَّاسُ يَتَسَاءَلُونَ حَتَّى يُقَالَ: هَذَا خَلَقَ اللهُ الْخَلْقَ، فَمَنْ خَلَقَ اللهَ؟ فَمَنْ وَجَدَ مِنْ ذَلِكَ شَيْئًا، فَلْيَقُلْ: آمَنْتُ بِاللهِ”
“Mankind will continue to question one another till the following is hypothesised: ‘Allāh created everything but who created Allāh?’ He who found himself confronted with such a situation should say, ‘I affirm my faith in Allāh.’”
[Sahīh Muslim, pg 81, Hadīth no 134, 212-213]
[Please note: If the time of prayer is running out and your illness has still not ceased then you still have to perform wudu and pray in the final moments of that prayer. For example, if a nosebleed started during Zuhr and you could not do wudu and pray due to the continuous bleeding, then towards the end time of Zuhr you would make wudu and pray Zuhr when there is just enough time to finish the obligatory prayer. You would then make a separate ablution for each following prayer time (without having to wait till the end of the prayer time).]
واللہ تعالی اعلم ورسولہ اعلم صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم
کتبہ ابو الحسن محمد قاسم ضیاء قادری
Answered by Mufti Qasim Zia al-Qadiri
Translated by Haider Ali
Read the original Urdu answer here: [Q-ID0733] My Wudu keeps breaking due to an illness, in this situation what do I do?