Urinary Incontinence and Wudu

Answered by Shaykh Faraz A. Khan

Question: Is there a dispensation (in terms of redoing wudu’, the acceptance of hajj, repeating prayers, or anything that requires a state of wudu’) for a person who has urinary incontinence?

Answer: Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah,

I pray this finds you in the best of health and faith.

This issue is based on the rules of chronic annulment of wudu.

The Dispensation

Once legally established as having a chronic excuse such as urinary incontinence, one only needs to make wudu at the time of each fard prayer, and then may pray as many fard or nafl prayers as he wishes.

The wudu of such a person is invalidated only when the prayer time expires, or if wudu is invalidated by another nullifier of wudu (other than one’s chronic excuse).

The Conditions of Such a State

There are three types of conditions for someone to legally be considered as having a chronic excuse.

(1) The condition of establishing the excuse: the excuse must last the duration of an entire prayer time period, such that the person does not have enough time to make wudu and pray the fard prayer without the excuse occurring.

Once that occurs, the person may take the dispensation mentioned above.

(2) The condition of continuation: once a person is chronically excused, then one remains so legally and can continue to take the dispensation as long as the excuse occurs at least once in each prayer time.

(3) The condition of termination: a person leaves this state only if an entire prayer time passes without a single occurrence of the excuse. If that happens, one is no longer legally excused and can no longer act on the dispensation.

[Shurunbulali, Ascent to Felicity]

And Allah knows best.

wassalam
Faraz

Checked & Approved by Faraz Rabbani