What Is the Ruling if I Have Flatulence Due to IBS and Suffering From OCD?

Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel

Question

I have IBS, and there are times that I fart continuously. Sometimes, it’s not continuous but causes me to do wudu multiple times during the prayer. Also, right after the birth of my first daughter, I used to feel that urine was leaking continuously. I started always wearing pads and changing them multiple times a day.

I see traces if I don’t change pads for long or try to hold urine for any reason. I also suffer from OCD, so everything combined sometimes takes me an hour or more to complete the prayer. I started following the ruling for da’im al-hadath. Can I attend the mosque and the activities there and pray with the congregation on days when the farting is not as bad?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

First, you will have to judge yourself if you are an excused person who cannot hold onto the discharge of wind and perform the prayer with complete ablution. If this is the case, then you may:

• Perform wudu at the time of every fard prayer and
• pray with that wudu as much fard or nawafil as you wish. [ ‘Ala’ al-Din ‘Abidin, al-Hadiyya al-‘Ala’iyya]

See the link below on the fiqh of chronic excuses and ablution

Attending the Masjid

You may attend the masjid and activities when you don’t have the issue or perform the prayer away from the prayer hall if you have a problem.

Timing the Prayers

If you are not classified as an excused person, then you may perform the prayers in close proximity, like dhuhr near its end and ‘asr at its beginning, and the same with maghrib and ‘isha; if you are still facing difficulty; however, I would not advise doing this, unless necessary, since delaying maghrib prayer is prohibitively disliked.

Limiting the Cause

It may be helpful to refrain from eating foods or eating before prayers so that flatulence is less or non-existent during and around the prayer.

I pray you are given full recovery and your symptoms are alleviated soon amin

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The Fiqh of Chronic Excuses and Ablution – SeekersGuidance
(122) 30 – Devil’s Tricks – The Path of Muhammad: Birgivi’s Manual of Taqwa Explained – Sh Faraz Rabbani – YouTube
Doubts – IPD Session #3 | COJ – an ISIP Youth Chapter Initiative
The Application of Islamic Psychotherapy for the Treatment of OCD
Key Principles Relating to Certainty, Doubt, and Baseless Misgivings (waswasa) – SeekersGuidance
A Reader on OCD and Waswasa (Baseless Misgivings) (seekersguidance.org)
(1) The Application of Islamic Psychotherapy for the Treatment of OCD~Dr. Hooman Keshavarzi – YouTube
Satanic Tactics: Seven Tricks of the Devil (seekersguidance.org)
Being Balanced – Emotional and Mental Health – Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat (seekersguidance.org)

Why not begin your search for knowledge by signing up for a course on SeekersAcademy (seekersguidance.org)

May Allah Most High give you ease and relief from the illness.

I pray this helps with your question.

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