Is My Prayer Valid in Which I Had the Urge to Pass Wind?

Answered by Ustadh Sufyan Qufi

Question

I have heard that it is wajib to break the prayer if you urgently need to go to the toilet or have to leave wind, so I wanted to ask if my previous prayers where I had to go to the toilet or had the urge to leave wind but didn’t do it are valid?

Answer

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

I pray this finds you in the best of states.

Yes, your prayers were valid despite your need to relieve yourself. The reason for this is that you have performed all the obligatory actions of the prayer while fulfilling all the obligatory conditions of the prayer. [Shurunbulali, Nur al-Idah]

To pray while having the urge to urinate or defecate or while needing to relieve oneself from gas is deemed prohibitively disliked (makruh tahriman) and thus sinful. Therefore if it distracts you you must break the prayer and relieve yourself unless you fear the prayer time will expire. [Ibn Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]

I have asked Shaykh Faraz Rabbani (may Allah protect him) specifically about this issue. He told me that the prayer is deemed prohibitively disliked when one is actively pushing back the urge to relieve oneself. A sign of this would be that if one would go to the toilet the relief would happen without any effort. As for a mere feeling, it is of no consequence and one can continue to pray. Especially when this is a recurring situation.

And Allah knows best.

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

___________
Thumbnail Picture by Wirestock on Freepik