Purity of a woman who has continuous discharge
Fatwa No: 136790

Question

Is the discharge that emerges from women, whether it is white or yellow, pure? Should a woman perform ablution after it, taking into consideration that it comes out continuously? If this discharge does not come out continuously, what is its ruling as most women, especially the educated ones, consider this discharge to be natural moisture that does not nullify ablution?

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu 'alyhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen said: "What appears to me after conducting research in this issue is that the discharge that does not come out of the bladder, but rather out of the woman’s uterus is pure, but it does nullify ablution as the nullifiers of ablution are not necessarily impure. For instance, passing wind nullifies ablution even though this does not affect the body or the clothes. If a woman passes wind, her ablution is nullified and she has to renew it. If these discharges are continuous, it does not nullify ablution, but a woman should perform ablution when the time of the prayer is due and she can pray the obligatory prayer at the time when she performs ablution as well as all the voluntary prayers that she wants to pray. She can also recite the Quran and can do anything that is lawful for her as this ruling is the same as the ruling that scholars give regarding the one who has enuresis (urine incontinence). Hence, this discharge is pure but it nullifies ablution, but if it is continuous, it does not nullify ablution and a woman should perform ablution after the time of the prayer is due and she should wear a sanitary towel. If this discharge is not continuous and it stops for a while, she should delay the prayer up to the time when this discharge stops provided that she does not fear missing the prayer. If she is afraid that she may miss the prayer, she should perform ablution and wear a sanitary towel, then pray. There is no difference between a little or a large discharge because all of it comes out of one of the two passages, and so it nullifies ablution, but what comes out from other places of the body such as blood or vomit does not nullify ablution whether it is a little or a lot. I do not know any of proof for what some women think, which is that this discharge does not nullify ablution, except one opinion that was said by Ibn Hazm but he did not cite any evidence to support it. If he had any proof of this from the Quran, Sunnah or the sayings of the Companions this would have been taken as evidence. Women should fear Allaah The Almighty and be diligent to preserve their purity when praying as prayer is not accepted without being pure even if it is a hundred prayers. Some scholars even state that the person who (deliberately) prays without being pure becomes a disbeliever as this is considered mocking the verses of Allaah The Almighty."

Allaah Knows best.

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