Answered by Ustadha Shazia Ahmad
Question
I’m a female and I have a constant feeling that maniyy is being discharged based on some thoughts. I have pain near the private area so I’m unsure if I ejaculated so I continue going to the toilet to check if I did release maniyy by inserting tissue and checking the tissue. What should I do in my condition, can you please describe the characteristics as I know it’s thin and yellow but I have yellow discharge at times so I’m unsure of the difference between the two.
Answer
Thank you for your question. I am certain that your constant discharge feeling is not female sexual fluid, but perhaps arousal fluid (madhy).
Maniyy
It says in the Reliance of the Traveller:
e10.4 Male sperm and female sexual fluid are recognized by the fact that they:
- come in spurts (n: by contractions);
- with sexual gratification;
- and when moist, smell like bread dough, and when dry, like egg-white.
When a substance from the genital orifice has any of the above characteristics, it is sperm or sexual fluid and makes the purificatory bath obligatory. When not even one of the above characteristics is present, it is not sperm or sexual fluid. Being white or thick is not necessary for it to be considered male sperm, and being yellow or thin is not essential for it to be considered female sexual fluid.
Madhy
One would not need to insert any tissue at all to look for maniyy as it comes in spurts. It would be present on the underclothing. As such, I believe that you might be seeing madhy. This is arousal fluid which one would just wash off the underclothing, and then renew one’s ablution. Madhy is not typically yellow, but white and sticky.
It says in the Reliance of the Traveller:
e10.6 If one does not know whether one’s discharge is sperm or whether it is madhy (def: (1) above), then one may either:
- consider the liquid sperm, and perform the purificatory bath (0: in which case washing the portions of clothes and so forth affected with it is not obligatory, as it is legally considered a pure substance);
- or consider it madhy, and wash the affected portions of the body and clothes (N:
which is obligatory, as it is legally considered filth), and perform ablution, though not the purificatory bath.
The best course in such cases of uncertainty is to do all of the above (O: of bathing, washing the affected portions, and ablution, so as to take due precaution in one’s worship).
May Allah give you the best of this world and the next.
[Ustadha] Shazia Ahmad
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Ustadha Shazia Ahmad lived in Damascus, Syria for two years where she studied aqida, fiqh, tajweed, tafsir, and Arabic. She then attended the University of Texas at Austin, where she completed her Masters in Arabic. Afterward, she moved to Amman, Jordan where she studied fiqh, Arabic, and other sciences. She later moved back to Mississauga, Canada, where she lives with her family.