What Can I Do If I Doubt Water Seem to Be Not Reaching Certain Areas?

Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel

Question

When doing istinja, I usually pour water from the front also, when I wash my anus, I also pour from the back for certain areas, but mostly I pour from the front, but now I am starting to fear that the water might not reach as much as it should. I always felt like it did, but now I am starting to doubt it.

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

I pray you are in good faith and health. Thank you for your question.

Water, by its nature, can reach where it is intended. You are just having doubts. Don’t worry, remain assured, and just wash as normal.

Istinja for Women

A woman simply needs to wait for a little after urinating, and that’s it.

As for Istinja, which is cleaning the rear point of exit by using water or toilet paper, there are no differences between men and women, even if she is in a state of menstruation. The duty is the same. It is sunna to remove the filth at the exit point as long as the area covered by filth is less than a circle with a diameter of 5 cm. Toilet paper is enough for this, but water is better. If the filth crosses this circle, then it is obligatory to remove it with water.

[Tahtawi, Hashiyat al-Tahtawi ‘ala Maraqi al-Falah]

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Wassalam,
[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Mawlana Ilyas Patel is a traditionally-trained scholar who has studied in the UK, India, Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, and Turkey. He started his early education in the UK. He went on to complete the hifz of the Quran in India, then enrolled in an Islamic seminary in the UK, where he studied the secular and ‘Aalimiyya sciences. He then traveled to Karachi, Pakistan. He has been an Imam in Rep of Ireland for several years. He has taught hifz of the Quran, Tajwid, Fiqh, and many other Islamic sciences to children and adults onsite and online extensively in the UK and Ireland. He taught at a local Islamic seminary for 12 years in the UK, where he was a librarian and a teacher of Islamic sciences. He currently resides in the UK with his wife. His interest is a love of books and gardening.