Performing salaah with wudhu not knowing ghusal is also a requirement

Q: I prayed salah from puberty with proper wudhu but without ghusl for 7 years because I was not aware of the masalah of ghusl. Should I reperform those salahs?

A: During the seven years, the times when you had made ghusal and you washed your entire body (including rinsing your nose and gargling your mouth), though you did not have knowledge of the ghusal being a precondition for purity, the ghusal made in that state was valid and the salaah performed thereafter were also valid.

If you did not rinse your nose and gargle your mouth during the ghusal, but later on when you performed wudhu you carried out these two actions, then this will suffice for your ghusal being complete. Hence, the salaah performed thereafter were valid.

However, if you required a fardh ghusal and you did not make ghusal and only sufficed on wudhu due to not knowing the masalah of ghusal, then those salaah performed in such a state were not valid and will have to be repeated. You should apply your mind and try to work out how many salaah were performed in such a state.

And Allah Ta'ala (الله تعالى) knows best.

 

Answered by:

Mufti Zakaria Makada

Checked & Approved:

Mufti Ebrahim Salejee (Isipingo Beach)