Q: I have been living with a lot of hard ship for the past 4 months. I have OCD and I can’t control my thoughts. The more I try to avoid bad thoughts the more they come into my head. So every time before namaz I have to wash myself and do wudu because I am not sure if I had dirty thoughts that would cause vaginal discharge and having OCD makes this worse because I can never tell the difference. So I always have to wash myself and do wudu 5 times a day. I can never keep my wudu because I can’t stop dirty/bad thoughts from coming in my mind and even if they don’t come, if I try to remember if I have broken my wudu or not then they come into my mind and I think my wudu is broken. I can never tell if there is discharge with the thoughts but it is getting to be very stressful. I spend so much time doing wudu my skin is getting ruined from all the water. It is so dry. I use a lot of lotion and even that is getting finished very quickly but it is still very dry. I don’t know what to do. I can’t control my thoughts and I can never know if my wudu has broken or not. So if I come home late from something and there is still time to pray I go and make wudu and pray but then the more I try to avoid bad thoughts the more they come and bother me. I am trying to get better but treating OCD is very hard so an hour later I have to do wudu all over again. This becomes a big problem where I have to leave somewhere right after namaz because it takes me so long to do wudu and get namaz done. It is causing me a lot of mental stress. I am so tired of doing all this. 1) What do I do in this situation? I really need advice. My parents get very upset with me for using so much water and being in the bathroom for so long but I dont know what to do. I have heard that if you are not 100% certain that your wudu has broken then you don’t have to renew it but I am never sure but I feel like if I don’t do wudu every time then what if my namaaz doesn’t count? I don’t know what to do. I am very depressed about this please help.
A: Do not pay attention to these stray thoughts. Your wudhu will not break by the thought passing your mind. However if discharge comes out, then the wudhu will break.
And Allah Ta’ala (الله تعالى) knows best.
Answered by:
Mufti Zakaria Makada
Checked & Approved:
Mufti Ebrahim Salejee (Isipingo Beach)