Home » Hanafi Fiqh » Qibla.com » Validity of wudu on oils, ointments or such preparations

Validity of wudu on oils, ointments or such preparations

Answered as per Hanafi Fiqh by Qibla.com

Answered by Shaykh Sohail Hanif, SunniPath Academy Teacher

If wudu is done over oils, ointments or such preparations, is wudu valid? I have heard three opinions. One: it is valid, two: it is not valid and three: it is valid unless too much oil was used. Which is the correct opinion?

Answer:
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Assalamu alaykum

It is a condition for the validity of one’s wudu that the surface of the skin be free from any substance that prevents water from reaching the skin.

Substances like ink, for example, even though they form a visible layer on the skin, do not prevent the validity of one’s wudu, as this layer does not prevent water from reaching the skin because it is not really a substance that one might be able to scrape off of the skin but rather it is merely a dyeing of the surface of the skin. Skin creams, likewise, do not prevent water from reaching the skin, because again they do not really leave behind a layer that could be scraped off of the skin.

An ointment, on the other hand, if the layer is thick, will prevent water from reaching the skin as it a layer of a substance that prevents water from reaching the skin and will not wash off with the water.

Should this layer be thin and rubbed into the skin there is no reason to believe that this will prevent water from reaching the skin. The third opinion mentioned in the question appears the most appropriate.

[F: When there is medical need to use ointments that form a perceptible barrier on the skin, and hardship or harm in removing them, then it is permitted to merely pass a wetted hand over them. If there is harm even in this, then one may leave washing that area, and one’s ablution (wudu) will be valid. The ruling for bandages is the same. (`Ala al-Din Abidin, al-Hadiyya al-`Ala’iyya)]

And Allah knows best.

Sohail Hanif

This answer was indexed from Qibla.com, which used to have a repository of Islamic Q&A answered by various scholars. The website is no longer in existence. It has now been transformed into a learning portal with paid Islamic course offering under the brand of Kiflayn.

Read answers with similar topics: