Invalidation of Ablution (Wudu)

Wudu: What Invalidates It

The following acts render the ablution null and void:

1. An excretion of the pen-s, vagina or anus



Call of nature

O you who believe! When you intend to offer As-Salât (the prayer), wash your faces and your hands (forearms) up to the elbows, rub (by passing wet hands over) your heads, and (wash) your feet up to ankles. If you are in a state of Janâba (i.e. had a sexual discharge), purify yourself (bathe your whole body). But if you are ill or on a journey or any of you comes from answering the call of nature, or you have been in contact with women (i.e. sexual intercourse) and you find no water, then perform Tayammum with clean earth and rub therewith your faces and hands. Allâh does not want to place you in difficulty, but He wants to purify you, and to complete His Favour on you that you may be thankful.
[The Noble Qur'an 5:6]

Passing gas, i.e. breaking wind

Abu Hurairah reported that the Messenger of Allah said, "Allah does not accept the prayer of a person who has released gas until he makes a new ablution." A person from Hadhramaut asked Abu Hurairah, "What does releasing gas mean?" He answered, "Wind with or without sound."
[Related by al-Bukhari and Muslim.]

Abu Hurairah also narrated that the Prophet said, "If one of you finds a disturbance in his abdomen and is not certain if he has released any gas or not, he should not leave the mosque unless he hears its sound or smells its scent."
[Related by Muslim.]

'Abbad ibn Tameem related that his uncle queried the Prophet about a person who feels something in his abdomen while praying. Said the Prophet , "He should not leave (the prayer) until he hears it or smells it."
[Related by Muslim, Abu Dawud and at-Tirmidhi.]


2. Deep sleep

If a person did not keep his buttocks firmly seated on the floor while sleeping, he must make a new ablution.
Narrated Anas who said, "The companions of the Prophet were waiting for the delayed night prayer until their heads began nodding up and down (from drowsiness and sleep). They would pray without performing ablution."
[Related by ash-Shaf'i, Muslim, Abu Dawud and at-Tirmidhi]


3. Touching the sexual organ with no barrier (i.e. cloth) between the hand and organ

Busrah bint Safwan narrated that the Prophet said, "Whoever touches his sexual organ cannot pray until he performs ablution."
[This hadith is related by "the five." At-Tirmidhi classified it as sahih and al-Bukhari called it the most authentic report on that topic. Malik, ash-Shaifi, Ahmad and others also narrated it.]


4. Loss of conciousness

"This nullifies the ablution regardless of whether it was owing to insanity, fainting, drunkenness, or some medicine. It also does not matter if one was unconscious for a short or long period of time, or if one was sitting, or fell to the earth, and so on. The aspect of unawareness here is greater than that of sleeping. The scholars agreed on this point.",(1)

(1) Fiqh us-Sunnah, Purification and Prayer,volume 1, p.35-37, Sayyid Sabiq, International Islamic Publishing House, 1991.


All notes taken from the book Fiqh us-Sunnah, 1991.