Does Vaginal Discharge Break Wudu?


Hanafi Fiqh

Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Question

I wanted to know what the ruling was for women who have discharge. Does it nullify their wudu?

If so, then what about the women who have it daily, even if they discharge during prayer?

Does it then mean that their prayer does not count and that they’d have to make wudu and pray again?

Answer

The default is that anything that exits from either private parts nullifies ritual ablutions (wudu) for both men and women. Such things are also considered in themselves ritually impure (najis). [Haskafi, Durr al-Mukhtar, Bab al-Ghusl]

This includes all female discharge except one type. The discharge that does not nullify ritual ablutions (wudu) and is considered ritually clean (tahir) is the chronic vaginal discharge (rutubat al-farj) that comes out normally and regularly and is clear and not discolored. Some scholars explain it to be akin to the sweating of the vaginal walls.

When reasonably possible, one should renew one’s ritual ablutions in such cases. However, there is nothing wrong with following this ruling when it is difficult to do so, such as at work or school. It is what is indicated by the words of Ibn Abidin, as confirmed by the fuqaha.

It should be noted, again, though, that all other discharge, even if slightly discolored, nullifies ritual ablutions and is ritually impure.

Wassalam,
[Shaykh] Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Faraz Rabbani spent ten years studying with some of the leading scholars of recent times, first in Damascus, and then in Amman, Jordan. His teachers include the foremost theologian of recent times in Damascus, the late Shaykh Adib al-Kallas (may Allah have mercy on him), as well as his student Shaykh Hassan al-Hindi, one of the leading Hanafi fuqaha of the present age. He returned to Canada in 2007, where he founded SeekersGuidance in order to meet the urgent need to spread Islamic knowledge–both online and on the ground–in a reliable, relevant, inspiring, and accessible manner. He is the author of: Absolute Essentials of Islam: Faith, Prayer, and the Path of Salvation According to the Hanafi School (White Thread Press, 2004.) Since 2011, Shaykh Faraz has been named one of the 500 most influential Muslims by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center.