Has Vaginal Discharges and Confused about Ablution Fatwa No: 389557
- Fatwa Date:3-1-2019
I am reading/hearing mixed reports regarding vaginal discharge and the validity of Salah/Wudhu etc, hence please clarify:What is the ruling on everyday discharges of a woman? The ones that may occur many times a day between monthly periods? Is a woman required to check if she has a discharge on her clothes/body and then only after washing her private parts should she make wudhu? If she doesn't do this, and instead makes Wudhu once and afterwards prays 2 or more prayers with this one wudhu, not checking in between for discharge etc and not having broken her wudhu, is her Wudhu/Salah valid or not?
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.
The normal vaginal discharges are pure according to the view of the majority of the scholars. So, it is not obligatory to perform Istinjaa’ (wash the private parts) from it or to wash the body or clothes from it.
However, these discharges invalidate ablution. So if a woman has these discharges, she must perform ablution if she wants to pray or do anything that requires ablution.
She is not obliged to inspect, search and check her clothes to see whether or not she has such discharges. Rather, it is enough for her to act according to the principle (that she does not have such discharges) until she becomes certain that she has them. If she becomes certain and absolutely sure, then she performs ablution.
If she has doubts about the time she had such discharges, then she should attribute it to the most recent time when it is likely that she had them. If the discharge of these secretions is continuous to the point that it reaches the extent of incontinence and she cannot find enough time during the interval of the prayer to perform her prayer with a valid ablution, then she may perform ablution for each prayer after its time has started, and pray with this ablution the obligatory prayer and whatever supererogatory prayer that she wishes until the time of this prayer expires (i.e. until the time of the next prayer comes).
The scholars in the Maaliki School of jurisprudence are of the view that a person who suffers from incontinence, his ablution is not invalidated as a result of a continuous incontinence. Therefore, you can act according to this view when in need.
For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 136790, 358234, 359443 and 177761.
Allah knows best.