Are My Previous Prayers Invalidated after Finding Blood Later On?


Hanafi Fiqh

Answered by Ustadh Sufyan Qufi

Question

What should I do if I notice blood after praying a fard salah with sunnah prayers and make-up prayers?

Answer

I pray this finds you in the best of states.

Noticing blood after performing your prayer won’t retroactively invalidate your prayer. Your prayer will remain valid.

The reason for this ruling is that when it comes to incidental events, Hanafi jurists tell us that if we are in need to know when this incidental event has happened, it is our duty to deem that this incidental event happened at the closest time possible to the time when we have witnessed this matter for the first time.

In your situation, you would have to deem that your bleeding happened a few seconds before you saw it for the first time. Thus you will be able to deem your past prayers valid because you are religiously bound to believe that you were not bleeding during these prayers.

The above is based on the following legal principle of Islamic Jurisprudence:

“The basis is to attribute incidental events to the closest time possible.” [Majalla]

The principle above is derived from the following principle:

“Certainty is not lifted by a doubt.” [Ibid]

Which 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]

And Allah knows best.

[Ustadh] Sufyan Qufi
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Ustadh Sufyan Qufi is an advanced seeker of knowledge, originally from Algeria, who grew up in France. He began searching far and wide for answers to the fundamental questions of life and was disappointed at the answers he found.

Then he connected with various traditional teachers and gradually connected with SeekersGuidance. He embarked on his journey of learning through the various teachers at SeekersGuidance, including his mentor Shaykh Faraz Rabbani.

He studied numerous texts in Islamic Law, Theology, Hadith, and other areas with Shaykh Faraz Rabbani and other teachers, including Shaykh Abdurrahman al-Sha‘ar, Shaykh Ali Hani, and others.

He is an active instructor at SeekersGuidance and answers questions through the SeekersGuidance Answers Service.