Will the Prayer Be Accepted If the Body Has an Impurity?
Hanafi Fiqh
Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel
Question
Would a person’s prayer be accepted if they have some impurity on themselves that is too difficult to remove?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate
I pray you are well.
Filth
A small amount of filth affecting one’s clothing or person would be excused and would not affect the validity of one’s prayer but recommended to remove.
A small amount is defined as the extent of:
- Five grams of solid filth; or
- Five centimeters, in diameter, of liquid filth.
An excessive amount of filth which is more than the above in solid and liquid filth has to be removed unless it is difficult, such that when a person has the following, for example:
- chronic urinary incontinence,
- constant bleeding,
- pus coming out from one’s wound or operation,
- one with a catheter fitted due to some illness,
- or has a stoma bag on his stomach.
This is an excuse for them. Allah (Most High) says, “Allah does not require of any soul more than what it can afford.” [Quran, 2:286]
Excusable Amount of Filth
In the Hanafi school, the excused amount of liquid filth is approximately 5cm in diameter and approximately 5 grams in solid filth. Although one is excused, to pray with that amount is disliked and entails wrong, yet not sinful. Praying with filth less than that amount is disliked yet does not entail doing wrong. [Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah; `Ala al-Din `Abidin, al-Hadiyya al-`Ala’iyya]
Related:
Purification in Islam: A Comprehensive Reader
Prayer Reader: The Ultimate Guide To Prayer in Islam
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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.
