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Managing OCD and Wudu Doubts: My Struggle and Seeking Advice

Answered as per Hanafi Fiqh by Muftionline.co.za

Q: I am a very doubtful person and I might be suffering from OCD but I am trying to recover slowly. Sometimes when I have to go somewhere at night like to a dinner with my parents I make wudu before I start getting ready so I can be sure to pray maghrib before I leave but when I don’t get ready I will doubt if I my wudu has broken or not because I get discharge all the time but I have heard that this doesn’t require wudu, but discharge when one thinks of something inappropriate does require wudu. With OCD I can’t control thoughts that come into my head so I am trying to learn to just let them pass and not effect me because the more I try to get rid of bad thoughts the more they come. So I am trying to just let them pass. But when I think that did my wudu break, I say no then I am like did I get any bad thoughts and that brings bad thoughts into my mind. I can’t control it. They will pass if I don’t pay attention to them but if I obsess over it then it gets very stressful for me and I start to panic so I can never keep my wudu and always have to do it again. because a thought will come into my head and I can’t control it. What do I do in this case because there is never enough time to go do wudu again because everyone is getting ready to leave so I either have to read namaz when I get home or make everyone upset because they have to wait for me and this happens all the time. I can never keep my wudu for longer than a duration of a namaz and sometimes even then I will get bad thoughts but I ignore those or else I would never be able to finish a single namaz. What do I do in this case do I always do wudu or can I just keep it as long as I haven’t passed gas or went to the bathroom because this causes me a lot of hardship as I always have to renew my wudu before namaaz. Also if my zuhr got delayed because I was out and I prayed it as soon as I could at home and one hour later it was asr, do I do wudu again if the thoughts come because during a situation like this it becomes very hard to make wudu when I just did it an hour ago. Please give me advice on what I should do. I can’t just stop the thoughts because me trying to do that just makes it worse. So i’m slowly trying to lean to lessen them as my OCD gets better. Please if you could offer some advice.

Bismillaah

A: With the coming out of discharge, the wudhu breaks. You will have to renew your wudhu and thereafter perform your Salaah. However if you are a ma’zoor, then you will make wudhu at the beginning of the Salaah time and perform your Salaah. The coming out of discharge in this case will not cause the wudhu to break. For further details regarding the laws of a ma’zoor refer to http://muftionline.co.za/node/1571

And Allah Ta’ala (الله تعالى) knows best.

Answered by:

Mufti Zakaria Makada

Checked & Approved:

Mufti Ebrahim Salejee (Isipingo Beach)

This answer was collected from MuftiOnline.co.za, where the questions have been answered by Mufti Zakaria Makada (Hafizahullah), who is currently a senior lecturer in the science of Hadith and Fiqh at Madrasah Ta’leemuddeen, Isipingo Beach, South Africa.

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