Is My Prayer Valid If a Child with a Soiled Diaper Touches Me During It?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question

If a child with a soiled diaper touches me during prayer, does it invalidate my prayer? Can I monitor them with a camera app, hold or nurse them, and leave the prayer as a leader if needed to tend to them?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

If a child with a soiled diaper touches you, your prayer is not invalidated as you are not carrying the child and thus not carrying the impurity of its diaper. [Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]

It is permissible for the caretaker of a child to monitor the child to the extent needed; whichever method has the least movement and is least distracting should be given preference. [Ibid.]

If you feel that you may need to exit the prayer to attend to your child, it is permissible to break the prayer to do so. If one can avoid being the leader of the prayer in such a case, that would be best. [Ibid.]

Hope this helps
Allah knows best
[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat 

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch teaches Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he completed four years at the Darul Uloom Seminary in New York, where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences.

He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he studied for three years in Dar al-Mustafa under some of the most outstanding scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib.

In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Quran and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Quranic exegesis, Islamic history, and several texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.