Answered by Shaykh Abdul-Karim Yahya, SunniPath Academy Teacher
Can one pray with a gel substance that a doctor puts on them; if for example, a woman does not know the ingredients of a gel that a doctor puts on her stomach to listen to the fetus’s heart beat/ultrasound? What if this gel has alcohol or some impure substance in it and gets on the clothes of the mother, can she still pray in them? She tried looking at the bottle of the gel but there were no ingredients listed.
In The Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate
The assumption is that such substances are pure. Shaykh Ibn Hajar (Allah have mercy on him) said in Tuhfa: “The initial assumption of objects is purity because they were created for the benefits of the slaves [i.e. of Allah].”[1] So it is permissible to pray with a gel such as the one mentioned above on one’s person or clothing. And Allah knows best and he alone gives success (tawfiq).
[1] Ibn Hajar al-Haytami, Hawashi al-Sharwani Wa Ibn Qasim al-Abbadi ‘Ala Tuhfah al-Muhtaj Bisharh al-Minhaj (Beruit, Dar Ihya’ al-Turath al-‘Arabi), 1:387.