What Is Considered an Excuse during Prayer?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question

I’m so sorry and embarrassed. I don’t understand precisely one of your Fatwa on your site. I need a little explanation.

I have a problem with the Continuous discharge of sexual liquid (madhy). I checked my situation 37 times. Every time I performed wudu and prayed immediately in the shortest form of salah and checked my private part in the restroom.

From 37 times I prayed, I saw the discharge of madhy from my private part 16 times.
I read ‘The Fiqh of Chronic Excuses and Ablution,’ but I don’t understand something.
The conditions for being considered someone with a chronic excuse are of three types:

• The condition of initiation
• The condition of continuation
• It seems based on the first type. I’m not considered someone with a chronic excuse because it’s 16 times from 37. not 100%.

But based on 2nd type, I have considered someone with a chronic excuse because the excuse exists at least once in each prayer time.

So can I act based on 2nd type? Are my prayers valid?

I read a Hadith from the prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) about this kind of problem. The 4th Caliph of Islam, Ali (Allah be pleased with him), asked the prophet about his situation, but he never said you have to try to pray as fast as possible.

Please help me to find my way. If I’m not considered someone with a chronic excuse, then praying would be suffering in my life.

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

I am sorry to hear of your difficulty and pray that Allah Most High gives you ease and well-being.

Chronic Excuses

The initiation condition must be fulfilled to be considered a person with a chronic excuse.

The condition is that one entire prayer time pass in which there was no stopping of the excuse for the amount of time that would allow for ablution and prayer to be performed.

Note that you can use the time of fajr prayer or maghrib prayer to calculate the above. These are the shortest prayer times. Also, the reasonable surety that there is not enough time to perform wudhu and prayer is sufficient.

You will not be excused if you do not fit this condition. However, if, even once, you fit these conditions, you are considered excused until one prayer time passes in which there is no presence of the excuse. But this only applies if one is excused already. [Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah]

I would advise seeking medical advice regarding treatment for your condition.

Hope this helps
Allah A’lam

[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch is a teacher of Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he then completed four years at the Darul Uloom seminary in New York where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences. He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he stayed for three years studying in Dar Al-Mustafa under some of the greatest scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib. In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Qur’an and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Qur’anic exegesis, Islamic history, and a number of texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.