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Does excessive ritual bathing (ghusl) from a state of major ritual impurity (janabah) to the extent that water enters the body through the urethral opening invalidate the fast? And if some of this water exits from this opening onto the body, does it nullify ablution (wudu’)?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Exaggeration in washing is a reprehensible extremism. What is obligatory in ghusl for janabah is to generalize the outer body with water without introducing water inside. Thus, it is not obligatory to wash the inside of the female private part, but rather what appears of it when answering the call of nature.

If water enters the private part during fasting, scholars have differed on whether it breaks the fast or not. The Shafi'i madhhab holds that an enema breaks the fast, whether the amount is small or large, and whether it reaches the stomach or not. According to the Malikis, an enema from the male urethra does not break the fast. As for the female private part, there are two opinions among them: one is that it breaks the fast, and the second is that it is like the man in that regard.

The exit of water that had entered the private part invalidates ablution if the person was in a state of ablution.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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