Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.  (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

Salaam

I wanted to ask what circumstances cause wudu or fast to break. For example, I have heard that if you appear without Hijaab in front of non-mehrem men you wudu is broken. Can you please advise on the above in relation to Women.

Thank you

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Answer:

What things break wudu fast

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no person, no grave, no prophet, no imam, no dai, nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

All the schools of thought are absolutely unanimous in their opinion that the following acts invalidate one’s wudu or ablution:

1. Any release from one’s private parts (urine, sexual emission, wet dream release, menses blood for women, stool, wind, etc.)
2. Deep sleep
3. sexual intercourse

The scholars and jurists in Islam have a difference of opinion whether the following acts invalidate the wudu or not; some have opined that these acts invalidate the wudu while others have opined that they do not:

1. The touching of one’s private parts
2. The touching of women
3. Constant bleeding of blood from any part of the body
4. Vomiting
5. The consuming of camel meat
6. The washing of a deceased’s body.

There are five things which will break or invalidate the fast:

1. Eating
2. Drinking
3. Sexual intercourse
4. voluntary semen discharge
5. the menstruation of the woman while fasting

Your Question: I have heard that if you appear without Hijaab in front of non-mehrem men you wudu is broken.

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 24 Surah Noor verse 31:

31 And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands' fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers, or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their women, or the slaves whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex; and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments. And O ye Believers! Turn ye all together towards Allah that ye may attain Bliss.

If a believing woman intentionally appears without hijaab in front of non-mehram members of the opposite sex, although it does not invalidate or negate her state of wudu in any way whatsoever, she would definitely be guilty of a clear violation and transgression of the Commands of her Lord.

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me alone. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your brother and well wisher in Islam,

Burhan