What should I do about repeated doubts during wudu and prayer?
2026-09-20
F07 · Selected fatwas
Shaykh Ibn Bāz
الشيخ عبد العزيز بن عبد الله بن باز
Original Q&A · Full displayed answer
The entire substantive question describes repeated doubts and repeated wudu and prayer. The full answer includes both quoted hadiths, the instruction to disregard intrusive doubts until certainty and the concluding prayer for success.
النص العربي
السؤال الأصلي
أشعر أحيانا خلال الوضوء أن وضوئي ينتقض، وكذلك في الصلاة، ولا أدري هل هذا حقيقة أم وسواس؟ حتى أنني كثير الإعادة للصلاة والوضوء مما جعلني أحيانا لا أدرك صلاة الجماعة وأفكر كثيرا في الصلاة.
الجواب
هذه الوساوس من الشيطان، والواجب عليك إطراحها، وعدم الالتفات إليها، وإكمال وضوئك وصلاتك؛ لما ثبت عن النبي ﷺ أنه شكي إليه الرجل يخيل إليه أنه يجد الشيء في الصلاة، فقال عليه الصلاة والسلام: «لا ينصرف حتى يسمع صوتا أو يجد ريحا» متفق عليه، وفي صحيح مسلم، عن أبي هريرة رضي الله عنه، عن النبي ﷺ قال: «إذا وجد أحدكم في بطنه شيئا فأشكل عليه أخرج منه شيء أم لا؟ فلا يخرجن من المسجد حتى يسمع صوتا أو يجد ريحا».
بهذين الحديثين وما جاء في معناهما من الأحاديث يعلم كل مؤمن ومؤمنة: أنه لا ينبغي له الانصراف من صلاته ولا من وضوئه بما يحصل من الوساوس، بل يشرع له الإعراض عنها، حتى يعلم يقينا أنه خرج منه شيء، وحتى يعلم يقينا في موضوع الوضوء أنه قد انتقض وضوءه.
والله ولي التوفيق.
English translation
English rendering prepared for SalafAlSalih.com from the cited complete Arabic answer; not an official translation.
Original question
Sometimes while performing wudu, and also while praying, I feel that my wudu has broken. I do not know whether this is real or an intrusive doubt. I repeat my prayer and wudu so often that I sometimes miss the congregational prayer, and I think about the prayer a great deal.
Answer
These intrusive doubts are from Satan. You must cast them aside, pay no attention to them and complete your wudu and prayer. It is established that the Prophet ﷺ was told about a man who imagined that he felt something during prayer, and he said, “He must not leave until he hears a sound or detects a smell.” This is agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim. In Sahih Muslim, Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said, “If one of you feels something in his abdomen and is unsure whether anything has come out, he must not leave the mosque until he hears a sound or detects a smell.”
From these two hadiths and other hadiths with the same meaning, every believing man and woman knows that they should not leave their prayer or wudu because of intrusive doubts. Rather, they should disregard them until they know with certainty that something has come out, and, regarding wudu, until they know with certainty that their wudu has been invalidated.
Allah is the One who grants success.
Source and editorial notes
Official Ibn Bāz website, fatwa 3739; website cites Majmūʿ Fatāwā wa-Maqālāt 10/124
الوسواس في الوضوء والصلاة
Waswasa in Wudu and Prayer
Full original question and entire answer collated; replaces the historical selected excerpt. The entire official answer was compared from its start to its final substantive words. Website navigation, related answers and editorial footnote markers are excluded. For F09 the existing stored Arabic and English answer bodies already match the full answer and remain unchanged. Arabic vowel marks and decorative formatting are omitted; honorific glyphs are expanded to words.