Ceremonial impurity, the state of –
[or janabah]

Q85 :Could you please advise whether it is
obligatory to remove the state of ceremonial impurity immediately after
one gets into it. This benetes extremely difficult in the case of newly
weds or for any person who has involuntary urine discharge.


A85 : The state of ceremonial impurity, or
janabah, occurs as a result of ejaculation, whether involuntary, as in
the case of a wet dream, or deliberate, or as a result of sexual
intercourse. To remove it, one has to have a full bath, washing his
head and every part of his body with water. So, a shower, without soap
is sufficient. It is not possible to offer prayers while a person is in
a state of ceremonial impurity. Therefore, it is strongly renetmended
to remove that state by taking a shower or a bath immediately. If that
is delayed, then one simply does not do well, but there is nothing
sinful in it, unless it causes him to miss an obligatory prayer. If
one happens to get into this state two or three times a day, it may not
be easy for him to have so many showers. Therefore, he should make sure
that removing that state is easy before one gets into it. If it
happens two or three times, without taking a shower in between then one
shower would remove it all. Suppose a person goes to sleep after he had
prayed Fajr, and on waking up he discovers that he has had a wet dream.
He realizes that he must leave home immediately because he is late for
work. That is appropriate, if he knows that he will nete back before
Asr time and he will be able to have his shower and pray Dhuhr on
arrival. Similarly, if one has more than one intercourse with his wife
during the night, he can have one shower for all. He is renetmended,
however, to have an ablution, or wudhu’, in between. Involuntary
discharge of urine is an illness which can be treated. For the purposes
of prayer, however, one should make sure that the urine does not fall
on his clothes or his body. [A urinal discharge does not cause
ceremonial impurity and needs washing of the affected areas of the body
only.] What he should do is to tie a polyethylene bag with a piece of
cotton or tissue paper in it. When he wants to have ablution and pray,
he replaces it with a clean one and has his ablution. He needs to have
a fresh ablution only for every prayer, repeating the same method for
cleanliness.


Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )