Invalid Ghusl, Prayer, and the Fast

Shaykh Abdul Rahim Reasat is asked about the conditions of a valid ghusl and if not having a valid ghusl invalidates the fast.

Question:

Assalam alaykum wa rahmat Allah wa barakatuh.

I got my first period when I was around ten years old. I was told that I would have to take a bath once it was over in order to uplift the impurity, but I was never taught the proper steps involved in the ghusl. I simply continued taking a bath for many, many years and thought that I had become pure.

Just recently came to know that what I was doing was completely wrong, and it’s really made me upset knowing that I prayed and fasted many Ramadans in a state of impurity.

My question is that, in addition to making up the missed prayers, do I have to make up all the fasts of Ramadan, too?

Answer:

Wa alaykum assalam wa rahmat Allah wa barakatuh.

I pray you are well.

Purity is simple.

A valid ghusl is very simple. All a person has to do is rinse the mouth and nose, and make water flow over the rest of the body. There is very little to do to render it invalid.

If you submit another question with the reason why you think your ghusls have been invalid, it may be the case that they were valid – if not in the Hanafi school, then perhaps in another.

If the ghusls were indeed invalid then you would have to repeat all the prayers that were performed invalidly, but not the fasts. Purity is not a condition for the validity of a fast. (Shurunbulali, Nur al-Idah).

If they were invalid, see it as it being better for you to realize it in this world, so you can have the reward of compensating for this deficiency, and as a means for you to draw closer to Allah.

May Allah grant you the best of both worlds.

Abdul-Rahim

Checked and approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani.