I was pregnant and became tired and sick in the fifth month, and I had a watery discharge from the uterus. I took medicine to stop that, but at the beginning of the sixth month, it got worse and I began to feel contractions. I went to the emergency department, and they kept me in hospital, and raised the lower part of my body by putting pillows beneath me, and they put me on a drip for nutrients, and connected me to some other equipment that prevented me from moving. The time for Fajr prayer came and some emergency birth cases came to the hospital, and there was no one who could help me to purify myself or face the qiblah. When the time for the prayer was about to end, I prayed without wudoo’ or facing the qiblah or covering my ‘awrah properly. What is the ruling on this prayer of mine? Please note that I had a miscarriage a few hours after that; praise be to Allah in all circumstances.
Praise
be to Allah
Firstly:
If a sick person
is unable to pray standing, he should pray sitting; if he is unable to do
that, then he should pray lying on his side. If he is not able to do that,
then he should pray in whatever position he is able to. What is required is
to do wudoo’ and cleanse himself of impurity; if he is unable to do wudoo’,
he should do tayammum (“dry ablution”); if he is unable to do tayammum or to
remove any impurity, he should pray as he is, because Allah, may He be
exalted, says (interpretation of the meaning): “So
fear Allah as much as you are able”
[at-Taghaabun 64:16].
See the answers
to questions no. 106758 and
105356. See also the essay at-Tahaarah wa’s-Salaah li Ahl al-A‘dhaar
by Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him).
Based on that,
the prayer that you offered in this situation was valid, and you do not have
to repeat it, because that was what you were able to do at that time, and
the bleeding of nifaas (following the miscarriage) had not yet begun at that
point.
Secondly:
If a woman
miscarries, then she comes under the ruling of nifaas (postpartum bleeding)
if the fetus had developed human features, which is after eighty days of
pregnancy. If she bleeds following the miscarriage, or one or two days
before it, that comes under the rulings on nifaas, if the blood that
appeared before it was connected to the miscarriage or birth, and was
accompanied by indications of that, such as contractions or the pain of
birth.
With regard to
“water”, or discharge in which there is no blood, that appears before
delivery, it does not come under the rulings on nifaas.
Shaykh Ibn
‘Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him) was asked:
Three days
before giving birth, there was some discharge of water accompanied by some
pain; is this nifaas?
He (may Allah
have mercy on him) replied:
This is not
nifaas, because nifaas is blood, not water.
Moreover, it is
not nifaas unless it is accompanied by contractions, one or two days before
giving birth. But if it is a long time before the expected time of giving
birth, it is not nifaas, because nifaas is the bleeding that occurs at the
time of birth, or two or three days before that, accompanied by
contractions. As for water [discharge without blood], it is not nifaas. End
quote.
Fataawa Noor
‘ala ad-Darb
Based on that:
If the water
that came out when you were in the hospital was accompanied by blood, then
this bleeding was nifaas, and you did not have to pray in that case.
But if there was
no blood, then it was not the blood of nifaas, and in this case you had to
pray however you could at that time, as explained above.
And Allah knows
best.
