Answered by Shaykh Sohail Hanif, SunniPath Academy Teacher
On my sleeping suit trousers I saw signs that I had a discharge at night, but I did not remember the dream and I did not notice any signs on my trouser when I woke up for fajr and even the whole day long. Before going to office I took a normal bath but did not perform proper ghusl (i.e. did not perform istinja, wash mouth up to the throat, and sniff water in nose). I went to office and performed and lead rest of the prayers there after making wudu (i.e. I then washed my mouth up to the throat and sniffed water in nose as well). At night while I was changing for going into bed, I noticed the signs that I had discharged. The confusion is that I am not 100% sure when it happened to me, the previous night or before that, but most probably it happened to me the previous night (otherwise I would have noticed the sign). Now my question is that since I did not perform a proper ghusl, do I have to repeat all of my prayers for that day? Or do I have to repeat all those days when I was wearing that trouser? Or there is no need to repeat any prayer? (Because I took bath before rest of the 4 prayers and performed wudu) If I have to repeat my prayers, should I also inform others to repeat their prayers when I was leading them?
Wa Alaykum Assalam wa Rahmatullah wa Barakatuhu,
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful & Compassionate
One might be surprised to know that even the great sahaba were tried with similar circumstances. Imam Malik relates in his Muwatta:
84 Yahya related to me from Malik from Yahya ibn Sa’id from Sulayman ibn Yasar that ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab led the people in the Subh prayer and then went out to his land in Juruf and found semen on his clothes. He said, “Since we have been eating rich meat our veins have become fulsome.” He did ghusl, washed the semen from his clothing, and did his prayer again. [translation: Aisha Bewley]
As one is not sure when the wet dream occurred one should assume that it happened the last time that one went to sleep, in accordance to the legal maxim, ‘The basis is to ascribe occurrences to the most recent time.’ (Article 11, Majalla al-Ahkam)
It is not a condition that one intend to perform a ritual bath, nor is it a condition that one complete it in the same sitting. As long as one had washed the entirety of ones body, including washing ones mouth and nose before the prayer then ones prayers are valid regardless of the amount of time that elapsed between washing ones body and washing ones mouth and nose and regardless of the fact that one did not intend ones morning shower to be a ritual bath.
Sohail Hanif