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What is your guidance to one who is afflicted by headache and sneezing due to sniffing water during ablution, while knowing its obligation?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Inhaling water into the nose (istinsḥāq) is obligatory in ablution (wuḍūʾ) due to the Prophet’s, peace and blessings be upon him, action and command concerning it. He said: "When one of you performs ablution, let him sniff water into his nostrils with his nose, then expel it." And: "Whoever performs ablution, let him expel water from his nose." If istinsḥāq causes harm, there is no need for exaggeration; rather, it suffices to draw water into the nose without reaching its furthest extent. If even that causes harm, then one should perform ablution without istinsḥāq, then perform tayammum (dry ablution), based on Allah’s Almighty saying: "So fear Allah as much as you are able." It is permissible to perform tayammum before or after ablution.

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

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