When Should I Take My Ritual Bath After Intercourse?
Question
1) If one has sexual intercourse with their spouse for example, in the morning (09h00) and again evening (19h00), on the same day, how many ghusl must one make in order to be pure for salah?
2) What if we have intercourse after dhuhr salah close to Asr time, what must happen by Asr salah moving forward?
3) Does the answers/ recommendations for answer 1 & 2 above differ per gender?
4) Is there any recommendations of when one should have intercourse to always be clean?
Answer
Thank you for your questions.
1) After the morning janaba (major ritual impurity after intercourse), one should take one’s ritual bath, preferably immediately, but at the latest, before the end of the dhuhr prayer time, in order to pray on time. One must also take a ritual bath after the evening janaba, preferably immediately, but at least before the end of the current prayer time, in order to pray on time.
2) If one is in janaba after having prayed dhuhr, one should take one’s ritual bath preferably immediately, but least before the end of asr time, in order to pray asr on time.
3) The gender is irrelevant.
4) There is no particular time of the day or night that is better for intercourse, but there are a few recommendations here:
Sexual Intercourse on Certain Nights
All in all, the scholars’ recommendations on how and when to purify from janaba are here:
Sleeping after Sexual Relations without taking a Ghusl?
Is there any other way to purify oneself from janaba?
May Allah give you the best of this world and the next.
[Ustadha] Shazia Ahmad
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Ustadha Shazia Ahmad lived in Damascus, Syria for two years where she studied aqidah, fiqh, tajweed, tafsir, and Arabic. She then attended the University of Texas at Austin, where she completed her Masters in Arabic. Afterward, she moved to Amman, Jordan where she studied fiqh, Arabic, and other sciences. She later moved back to Mississauga, Canada, where she lives with her family.
