How to Distinguish Between Female Ejaculate and a Regular Discharge?

Answered by Ustadh Tabraze Azam

Question: Assalam alaykum

A woman experiences discharge regularly. After her ritual bath due to an orgasm she notices another discharge.

How can she judge whether the discharge was her normal discharge or sexual fluid?

Answer: Wa alaykum assalam wa rahmat Allah,

If you reached sexual climax, the basis would be that you would need to perform a ritual bath (ghusl). If this happened via intercourse, you would unquestionably need to perform the ritual bath.

The jurists (fuqaha) mention that female ejaculate tends to be fine and yellow. Yet they also distinguish between the fluid which exits after intercourse, and after having bathed, by stating that caution would entail redoing the bath. But if she knows that the exiting fluid is from her husband, she would not need to do so.

Chronic vaginal discharge, however, is normally white or clear, and it does not nullify your ritual ablution (wudu). But it remains superior to renew your ritual ablution, when reasonably able, given the difference of opinion on the matter.

[Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah with Tahtawi’s Gloss (1.144); Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar ‘ala al-Durr al-Mukhtar (1.107-108)]

Please also see: The Ritual Bath (ghusl): Obligatory, Recommended, and Disliked Acts and Do Clear or White Vaginal Discharges Invalidate Wudu?

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And Allah Most High alone knows best.

Wassalam,

[Ustadh] Tabraze Azam

Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Ustadh Tabraze Azam holds a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Leicester, where he also served as the President of the Islamic Society. He memorized the entire Qur’an in his hometown of Ipswich at the tender age of sixteen, and has since studied the Islamic Sciences in traditional settings in the UK, Jordan and Turkey. He is currently pursuing advanced studies in Jordan, where he is presently based with his family.