Do I Need to Repeat My Prayers If I Doubted Wiping Head?
Hanafi Fiqh
Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel
Question
When I was doing wudu, I wiped my head, and before wiping my ears, I doubted whether I had wiped enough. I remember reading somewhere that “When the person doubts missing any of the obligations of the prayer, he should perform it because the basic principle, in this case, is that he did not perform that obligation.”
Based on this assumption for the wudu, I wiped my head with my already wet hands again (instead of getting more water). Was my wudu valid because I added another step?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate
I pray you are well.
It is obligatory (fard) to wipe a fourth of the head ensuring wetness touches a fourth of the head is sufficient. [’Ala’uddin ‘Ibn ’Abidin, al-Hadiyyah al-’Ala’iyyah]
In your case, you had wiped your head and ear but doubted if you had wiped enough. So, you repeated the wiping again. There is no need to repeat your prayer, neither your wudu was invalidated if you had repeated the wiping, like you mention. This is just a misgiving. Rest assured; your wudu and prayer were valid.
I would like you to go through the Reader below, it will help you in every way:
A Reader on OCD and Waswasa (Baseless Misgivings) (seekers.flywheelstaging.com)
Prayer Reader: The Ultimate Guide To Prayer in Islam – SeekersGuidance
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May Allah (Most High) ease all of our affairs and save us from the trickery of the shaytan, amin.
I pray this helps with your question.
Wassalam,
[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Mawlana Ilyas Patel is a traditionally-trained scholar who has studied in the UK, India, Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, and Turkey. He started his early education in the UK. He went on to complete the hifz of the Quran in India, then enrolled in an Islamic seminary in the UK, where he studied the secular and ‘Aalimiyya sciences. He then traveled to Karachi, Pakistan. He has been an Imam in Rep of Ireland for several years. He has taught hifz of the Quran, Tajwid, Fiqh, and many other Islamic sciences to children and adults onsite and online extensively in the UK and Ireland. He taught at a local Islamic seminary for 12 years in the UK, where he was a librarian and a teacher of Islamic sciences. He currently resides in the UK with his wife. His interest is a love of books and gardening.
