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What is the ruling on praying after waking up from sleep with a dry line of madhy (pre-seminal fluid) that I am unsure of, knowing that the usual amount of احتلام (wet dream/nocturnal emission) is greater than that?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The cases of a stain found on clothes are summarized as follows:

1. If it is confirmed to be semen (maniy): Ghusl (ritual bath) is obligatory, and the prayers performed after finding the stain and before ghusl must be repeated. 2. If you are certain it is pre-seminal fluid (madhiy): The prayer is valid if the madhiy is washed off the penis, body, and clothes, then wudu (ablution) is performed, and one prays with clean clothes. 3. If its nature is unknown (is it maniy or madhiy?): If you wish, you may consider it maniy: You perform ghusl and repeat the prayers you performed before ghusl. If you wish, you may consider it madhiy: Your prayer is valid if you wash the impurity of the madhiy off your body and clothes, perform wudu, and pray with clean clothes. This is the fatwa (religious edict) adopted by the Shafi'is. If you prayed with the impurity of madhiy due to ignorance or forgetfulness, you do not have to repeat the prayer.

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

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