Purity: Ruling on Missed Ghusl and Worship Due to Ignorance of Janābah

Practical Laws of Islam as per the teachings of Imam Khamenei

Purity: Ruling on Missed Ghusl and Worship Due to Ignorance of Janābah

English:

Question #194:

A youth has been masturbating due to ignorance before reaching fourteen and after. As he did not know that discharging semen makes him junub and he is required to do ghusl for praying and fasting, he did not perform the ghusl after the discharge of semen. What is his duty? Is it obligatory for him to perform the ghusls of this period during which he was masturbating and had seminal discharge? Are all his prayers and fasts made during this period and until now invalid and should he repeat them?

Answer #194:

A single ghusl of janābah is sufficient for all past discharges of semen. And it is obligatory for him to make qaḍā’ of all prayers he is certain he offered in the state of janābah. As to the fasts, if he did that at the nights of the month of Ramadan while did not know that he was junub, he is not be obligated to make up for these fasts in qaḍā’ and they are ruled as valid. But if he knew that he had had a discharge of semen and had been junub but doubted whether remaining junub invalidates the fast or not and kept fast while being junub, his fast was, according to the obligatory caution, void and he should make up for it in qaḍā’ as well. However, if he was certain that remaining junub does not invalidate the fast and fasted depending on such basis, his fast was alright, yet observing caution in doing its qaḍā’ is good.

-Imam Khamenei, Practical Laws of Islam, Rules of an Invalid Ghusl