Do Bleeding Gums Invalidate My Prayer?

Answered by Ustadh Sufyan Qufi

Question

What is the ruling when I taste blood in my mouth during the prayer?

Should I break my prayer and renew my wudu or should I just carry on praying?

Answer

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

I pray this finds you in the best of states.

“Certainty is not lifted by a doubt.”
[Ibn Nujaym, al-Ashbah wa’l Nadha’ir; Majallat al-Ahkam al-`Adiliyya]

This means that if one is certain about something, such as the validity of our worship, with this being the basic assumption for all human actions, then we will keep assuming it is valid until certain that it was not. Mere possibilities and even likelihoods do not change this.

You have started to pray in a state of purity, without tasting blood in your mouth.

Tasting blood in one’s mouth may indicate that your wudu has been broken. But it is also possible to taste blood in one’s mouth without having one’s wudu broken. This doubt about your state of purity should be ignored and you should finish your prayer.

You are not required to do anything more.

Gums and Purity

If your gums are bleeding and your saliva is yellowish then your wudu is not broken.
If your saliva is red then your wudu is broken. [Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah]

And Allah knows best.

Wassalam,
[Ustadh] Sufyan Qufi
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani