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Is it permissible to swallow saliva during prayer when there is a small amount of yellowish fluid or non-flowing blood between the teeth that does not change the taste or color of the saliva, knowing that removing the blood might lead to further bleeding?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

We ask Allah to cure you from the whispers (waswasah). We advise you to cast away the whispers and disregard them. Swallowing saliva during prayer does not harm you if the saliva does not change due to traces of blood, or if blood mixed with it after it became difficult to purify and hardship ensued. In such cases, it is excused to alleviate hardship, because hardship brings ease. Some scholars are of the opinion that rinsing the mouth after bleeding for the purpose of prayer is only recommended, and prayer is valid without it. The one afflicted with waswasah may act upon this less preferred opinion until the whispers dissipate. Analogizing saliva to water is incorrect, as change is a condition for pure absolute water, but not for anything else.

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

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