How Can a Person Pray If He Is Itching Excessively Due to a Skin Condition?


Hanafi Fiqh

Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel

Question

If a person has a skin condition, such as eczema, that causes severe itching, and they try to alleviate the situation as much as possible before praying; despite this, they are overcome by the need to itch and do so. Itching can occur for an extended period (more than three tasbihs or the length of a prayer posture) and may resemble someone not praying.

Is the person’s prayer broken or not? Are they deemed as having some kind of excuse? Could you kindly describe how to itch oneself to not break their prayer, particularly on the neck area?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.

I pray you are in good faith and health.

In your case, when you intend to perform the prayer, ensure to do the following so itching doe not arise, or if it does so, it is less:

  • Perform the wudu well before you start to pray, so if you have any itch, you relieve yourself from it before;
  • Perform the prayer in such a way that the onlooker does not think of you being out of the prayer; for example, don’t use both hands to itch and try to relieve yourself with minimum scratches;
  • Wiping the back of the neck is not an obligatory integral (fard) but among the sunnas of wudu. Therefore, if you were to leave out wiping the back of the neck, it would help you stop your itch during the prayer.

Note that wiping the back of the neck is among the emphasized sunnas of wudu. [’Ala’uddin ‘Ibn ’Abidin, al-Hadiyya al-’Ala’iyya]

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May Allah (Most High) give you ease and relief from the skin issue, amin.

I pray this helps with your question.
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.