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Doubts About Wuzu And Salah
[1] Doubts with Wudhu
I have heard there is a concession for those unable to keep wudhu for the length of a prayer: they may make wudhu once and keep the wudhu unless it is broken for reasons other than those that invalidate prayer.
Does this apply in my case?
I have been struggling with excessive doubts in my wudhu and prayer for the past two weeks. I often have to repeatedly make Wudhu because even during Wudhu, sometimes I feel something that may be a drop of urine exiting or a small bubble of gas passing when I apply pressure (e.g., lifting my foot into the sink, snorting water out of my nose). Today, I repeated wudhu for my Zhuhr prayer so many times that 30 minutes passed, the time for Asr began and I was ultimately forced to combine both prayers. In total, this process took almost an hour.
Two weeks ago, I kept repeating my prayers for 12 hours and eventually stopped because I had to sleep. I either doubted having missed something in my Salat, or felt my Wudhu had broken.
I have heard about the legal principle that “Certainty is not lifted by doubt”. The problem is that for someone like me, it is very difficult to reply. Even when I do ignore doubts momentarily because I’m not 100% confident, I feel guilty, over-analyze my doubts into a certainty and eventually repeat my prayer. For example, earlier this morning I posted about a doubt I had with passing gas in my Fajr prayer. I tried not to doubt all day, but eventually repeated the prayer with Isha after being exhausted mentally.
[2] Doubts with Prayer
To fix my issues with Salat, I have been using Sajda Sahw. Sometimes I still struggle with this because I’ll take a breath while articulating letters making them unclear, or doubt my pronunciation of a certain letter. Ghamidi Sahb says we should correct our mistakes when able, so I do – repeat several verses repeatedly. I am trying to become better with this though, just continuing prayer and performing Sajda Sahw at the end and asking forgiveness for my mistakes. Sometimes ignoring the doubts makes me feel guilty though, because I think I’m committing an intentional mistake. Is it an intentional mistake to ignore doubts in prayer?
[3] Wudhu
How precise does washing have to be in Wudhu? Ever since I heard the Hadith about the Prophet (PBUH) telling a man to repeat his Wudhu and Prayer when he saw a “nail-sized” area of unwashed skin, I have become very paranoid. I rub my face raw, trying to make sure water reaches my sideburns, area in front of the ear etc. Any advice?
Apologies about the long post, but it’s essential I resolve these issues. They are encroaching on my personal and professional life. I panic in Salah and when I finally manage to finish my prayers, I spend the rest of my time worrying about the prayer I have just completed.
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