Is My Wudu Valid despite the Presence of Filth at the Exit Point of My Private Part?

Answered by Ustadh Sufyan Qufi

Question

I slept after tahajjud, and when I woke up, I was getting late for fajr prayer, so I rushed and just did wudu no istinja’. Soon after prayer, I realized it was better to do istinja’ as there were some secretions from the private part. So, my prayer is valid or invalid.

Answer

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

I pray this finds you in the best of states.

If secretions were apparent at the point of exit of your private part, then your prayer was invalid. [Shurunbulali, Nur al-Idah]

The reason for this is that the mere presence of filth at the point of exit of your private part is an invalidator of wudu. And in order to perform a valid wudu, any invalidator of wudu must have stopped. [Ibid.]

If the secretions were outside the point of exit, your wudu and prayer were valid as long as the quantity of secretion on your skin was no more than a circle of 5 centimeters in diameter. [Ibid.]

More Details on the Legal Reasoning

Wudu cannot be valid while being affected, when performing it, by the very same thing that will break your wudu. It is thus not conceivable to deem you to have been purified by your wudu in this state. [Shurunbulali, Imdad al-Fatah]

This is why it is not permissible to start performing wudu as long as one is not sure that there is no urine manifest at the point of exit. [Ibid]   

And Allah knows best.
Wassalam
[Ustadh] Sufyan Qufi
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Ustadh Sufyan Qufi is an advanced seeker of knowledge, originally from Algeria, who grew up in France. He began searching far and wide for answers to the fundamental questions of life and was disappointed at the answers he found. Then, he connected with various traditional teachers and gradually connected with SeekersGuidance. He embarked on his journey of learning through the various teachers at SeekersGuidance, including his mentor, Shaykh Faraz Rabbani. He studied numerous texts in Islamic Law, Theology, Hadith, and other areas with Shaykh Faraz Rabbani and other teachers, including Shaykh Abdurrahman al-Sha‘ar, Shaykh Ali Hani, and others. He is an active instructor at SeekersGuidance and answers questions through the SeekersGuidance Answers Service.