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What is the ruling on the prayer of a person afflicted with obsessive-compulsive disorder (waswas) if its time expires during its performance? Is it invalidated by the breaking of his ablution, or is it still valid?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

A person excused due to urinary incontinence is not permitted to delay the prayer until its time becomes constricted. Their ablution (wudu') is invalidated by the expiry of the prayer time while they are still praying, according to the majority of scholars, who made an exception for Friday prayer. Some scholars hold the view that the ritual purity (tahara) of an excused person is not invalidated by the expiry of the time, citing the Prophet's instruction to Fatimah bint Abi Hubaysh to perform ablution for every prayer. The Malikis are of the opinion that the ablution of a person with incontinence is not invalidated by the usual occurrence of their incontinence, and this view is sound and offers ease.

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

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