How to Deal with Frequent Breaking of Wudu during Prayer?

Answered by Ustadha Shazia Ahmad

Question

It’s very hard for me to tell if I pass wind during my wudu because I pass wind quite often. I usually feel the gas build-up when I am in sajda and in tashahhud, but it is so often, I just ignore it. I sometimes hear a faint sound yet do not feel anything exit me? I am so confused and I keep getting doubting my prayer’s validity.

I also forget how many prostrations I have done and I ask the person next to me if he saw me do two prostrations and he doesn’t know. Then I perform sujud al-sahw. Should I have repeated the prayer?

Answer

Thank you for your question.

A person with the chronic annulment of wudu (da’im al-hadath), for example, because of constant release of wind, is not obliged to try praying several times without releasing wind nor frequently repeating his wudu. His prayer is perfectly valid, if he has made one wudu with the intention to seek permission to pray, and prays his obligatory prayer once, even if he passes wind during the whole prayer. He is considered to have chronic annulment if he cannot find enough time to be free of excuses, or if he does find enough time, but is unable to pinpoint when it will occur. This is useful as well: Urinary Incontinence and Wudu

Also in order to relieve your symptoms, chew your food more thoroughly, remove offensive foods from your diet and consider taking digestive enzymes.

As for not remembering whether you performed two prostrations or not, it doesn’t help to ask the person next to you, as he was most likely focusing on his own prayer.

A prostration is one of the integrals (arkan) of the prayer, so if it is missed, a sujud al-sahw will not suffice to rectify it. The Reliance of the Traveller says, (n: As for nonperformance,) if one misses an integral of the prayer (def: f9.14) and does not remember it until doing what comes after it, then one must (A: if still in the same rak’a) go back to it, perform it and what comes after it, and (A: it is sunna to) prostrate for it at the end of one’s prayer (0: provided one is not a follower. As for a follower who misses an integral, he continues following the imam until the imam finishes with Salams, and then the follower rises alone and performs a make-up rak’a. One is only obliged to re-perform a missed integral (A: in the same rak’a, i.e. when praying by oneself) if one’s forgetfulness of it doesn’t continue (A: until the next rak’a). If one’s forgetfulness continues and one goes on to perform the integral (A: during the course of the subsequent rak’a) then the same integral (A: of the following rak’a) takes the missed integral’s place (A: in which case the rak’a containing the omission does not count and one does not return to it, but performs the rest of the prayer and then adds a makeup rak’a at the end, after which one performs the forgetfulness prostration before one finishes with Salams). [p. 163]

According to what you have said in the question, you should make up the prayer. And Allah knows best.

[Ustadha] Shazia Ahmad
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Ustadha Shazia Ahmad lived in Damascus, Syria for two years where she studied aqida, fiqh, tajweed, tafsir, and Arabic. She then attended the University of Texas at Austin, where she completed her Masters in Arabic. Afterward, she moved to Amman, Jordan where she studied fiqh, Arabic, and other sciences. She later moved back to Mississauga, Canada, where she lives with her family.