Answered by Shaykh Hamza Karamali, SunniPath Academy Teacher
(1) So does this response mean that one only has to check if there was discharge if one actually feels something exit? So, if out and about for hours and yet one does not feel anything exit then one assumes one is on wudu’? What if after praying and going home one sees that something did exit but that it was not felt?
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate
Checking Discharge
Your wudu is valid unless you are sure otherwise. At no time are you obliged to check to see if something has exited. You can simply go on the assumption that nothing has exited until you become certain that something has, in fact, exited. If, later on, you check whether or not anything has exited and find that something has exited, you can assume that it exited at the latest possible time before checking (i.e., you don’t have to automatically assume that all your prayers for the entire day were invalid).
Taking the Hanafi Dispensation
As explained in previous posts by Shaykh Amjad, there are two opinions on this issue. The strongest opinion on the Shafi`i school (held by Ibn Hajar al-Haytami) is that both the prayer and ablution must be valid according to one school. According to this position, you would have to pray according to the Hanafi school if you follow the Hanafi school in matters of purification. This is not difficult to do, and is the way of caution.
Another position in the school (held by Ibn Ziyad) says that it is valid to follow the rulings of prayer according to one school and the rulings of ablution according to another. This allows you to follow the Hanafi school in matters of purification and the Shafi`i school in matters of prayer (although you cannot mix and match schools within the prayer or within purification). Shaykh Amjad has indicated that this position is permissible for one to follow, although it is weaker than the former.
And Allah knows best.
Hamza.