What Is the Legal Status of Leftover Water After Istinja’?

Answered by Ustadh Sufyan Qufi

Question

I am a male and want to clarify the ruling on the water at the tip or slightly inside the urethra after the istinja’ or a shower that comes out.

Is this water considered pure, or does it break wudu? Does this scenario get overlooked?

Answer

In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,

I pray this finds you in the best of states.

This water should be deemed to be pure and of no legal consequence when it comes to your ritual purity.

In fact, to avoid such misgivings, scholars advise sprinkling water over one’s private parts and one’s clothes after performing Istinja. This enables us to deem any moisture found afterward to be a remnant of this sprinkled water rather than a leakage of urine that would have nullified wudu.

Please see for more details: What Can I Do If I Have Misgivings After Istinja?

The above is a very useful application of the following legal principle:

“Certainty is not lifted by a doubt.” [al-Majalla]

This is, in turn, based on the following verse of the Quran: “Most of them follow nothing but conjectures. Surely, conjectures are of no avail in the matter of truth at all.” [Quran, 10:36] [Du‘ass, al-Qawa‘id al-Fiqhiyya]

And Allah knows best.
Wassalam
[Ustadh] Sufyan Qufi
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat

Ustadh Sufyan Qufi is an advanced seeker of knowledge, originally from Algeria, who grew up in France. He began searching for ways to learn Islam reliably and was disappointed at the answers he found locally.