How Should I Pray With Fecal Incontinence?

Answered by Ustadha Shazia Ahmad

Question

I am suffering from digestive issues and lately after using the restroom a little bit of stool comes out no matter how hard I try to clean. But this is just a little that I usually need to check with toilet paper if it has come out. This usually stops after a few minutes sometimes hours or maybe a day or two. How much outside of the anus needs to come out to nullify ablution and do I need to make up a prayer that I was clean for only 2-3 minutes?

Answer

Thank you for your question.  May Allah relieve you of this difficult situation and make it easy for you to worship.

Nullifying Ablution

Any amount that exits the anus will nullify ablution, however, your situation puts you in the category of da’im al-hadath (chronic annulment).

How to Pray

In our school, a person with chronic annulment of wudu (da’im al-hadath), for example, because of constant release of wind, urine, feces, or abnormal vaginal discharge, is not obliged to try praying several times without releasing the wind or filth. His prayer is perfectly valid, if he has made wudu with an intention suitable to his state, and prays his obligatory prayer once, even if filth or wind passes during the whole prayer. He is considered to have chronic annulment if he cannot find enough time to be free of nullifying his wudu, or if he does find enough time, but is unable to pinpoint when it will occur.

Steps

You should repeat your purification for every obligatory prayer in the Shafi‘i school. This is the sequence: After the prayer time has come in, wash the private parts, apply a dressing (pad) if you fear your clothes getting soiled, make wudu with the intention of seeking permission to pray, and you must pray right away without delay. You may delay if you are waiting for a group to gather to pray, and you may pray your sunnas while you wait.

You should pray your pre-fard sunnas and then the fard and then the post-fard sunnas on that purification whether alone or with a group. You can continue to pray non-obligatory prayers or carry a mushaf and read Quran until you pray the next obligatory prayer, in which case you must repeat the purification after its time has come in. [Summarized from the Reliance of the Traveller, e13.6]

Previous Prayers

Your previous prayers should be valid, because you attempted to purify and made a new ablution, at least according to the Hanafi school, and you should take the measures mentioned above from now on forward.

Please see this link as well:
How Does Clear Rectal Discharge Affect My State of Purity?

May Allah give you the best of this world and the next.
[Ustadha] Shazia Ahmad
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Ustadha Shazia Ahmad lived in Damascus, Syria for two years where she studied aqidah, 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.