Question

Salaam, hope this message finds you well insha allah.

My mother suffers from an illness called incontinence. In short, it means that whenever she coughs, she ends up urinating. It’s only droplets, but she ends up urinating. These coughs are sporadic and so the issue my mother is facing is that whilst she is in salah, she would have these coughs, leading her to urinate and breaking her wudhu/salah.

However, what she has been told is that since this counts as an illness, it doesn’t break her wudhu (she done research online into this, I don’t trust everything I read online). And so my mother has asked me to clarify the ruling on this. Can you please advise us on this matter?

Jazakallah khair

Answer

The emergence of any substance from the back and front passage nullifies one’s wudu, even in mere droplets.[1] These droplets will nullify your mother’s wudu. However, if this issue persists throughout an entire prayer time wherein your mother is unable to perform wudu and offer fard prayer because of this persistent issue, she will be classified as a ma‘dhur (an excused person). Yet, if the issue is unpredictable and irregular such that within the prayer time there was enough time to make wudu and pray fard (realistically 8-10 minutes is all that is needed here), one will not qualify as a ma‘dhur.

A ma‘dhur performs wudu in a single prayer time and during that entire time, if the problem occurs, their wudu will not break and their clothes will not become impure. They will be excused from this problem, and it will not affect their purity for the entire prayer time until it elapses. However, the laws governing the ma‘dhur are detailed. Mufti Abdur-Rahman Mangera put out the following video which details the laws of ma‘dhur clearly. Please refer to it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fx2f3JJfPI This video will discuss how someone becomes a ma‘dhur, and how they remain a ma‘dhur, and the dispensation available to the ma‘dhur.

And Allah knows best.

[1]           الفتاوى العالمكيرية = الفتاوى الهندية» (1/ 9): منها ما يخرج من السبيلين من البول والغائط والريح الخارجة من الدبر والودي والمذي والمني والدودة والحصاة، الغائط يوجب الوضوء قل أو كثر وكذلك البول والريح الخارجة من الدبر. كذا في المحيط  […] ولو خرج البول من الفرج الداخل من المرأة دون الخارج ينقض الوضو

Answered by:
Maulana Ikramul Hoque Miah

Checked & Approved by:
Mufti Abdul Rahman Mangera
Mufti Zubair Patel