Uncertainty as to whether wind has been passed
Question Can you give me exact details from hadeeths on the passing of wind after or during making ablution, and also on the idea that one should definitely make ablution when one has a movement in the stomach and hears a sound from the anus which is the passing of wind (I haven’t personally read…
Question
Praise be to Allah.
If a person
is sure that he has passed wind, then he has to do wudoo’, but if it
is simply the movement of gas in the stomach, or he imagines that he
may have passed wind, then he should not pay any attention to it. The
evidence that the mere movement of gas in the stomach or imagining that
one may have passed wind does not invalidate wudoo’ is the hadeeth whose
authenticity is agreed upon, narrated from ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Zayd, who
said:
“The Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) was asked about a man who
felt something during his prayer – should he stop praying? He said,
‘No, not unless you hear a sound or detect an odour.’” (Narrated by
al-Bukhaari, 1915; Muslim, 540). Al-Nawawi said: this hadeeth sets out
the principle that things should remain as they are unless one is certain
that they have changed; doubt does not affect the status quo.
Ibn Hajar
said: the majority of scholars followed this hadeeth.
Paying attention to these doubts
may lead to one being affected by insinuating whispers of the Shaytaan
(waswaas), so we must not pay attention to that, except in cases where
wind is definitely passed. Then wudoo’ is required. Al-Nawawi said,
concerning the phrase “unless you hear a sound or detect an odour”:
“it is sufficient to know that one or the other is present; it is not
a condition that both the sound and the odour be present, according
to the consensus of the Muslims.” What is meant here by knowing is being
certain. And Allaah knows best.
