By: Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei’i
Rules Regarding Prayer
Question 17: What should a person do if urine, feces, or stomach gases are constantly released from his body, to such an extent that he cannot perform a prayer with wudū’ and also does not have the ability to perform wudū’ before every prayer?
Answer: In the cases where one is unable to perform wudū’ he must perform tayammum. The rulings of the maslūs and the mabtūn are mentioned in detail in the books of Islamic jurisprudence.
Question 18: Does a person who has an open wound or broken bone one the top of his head or on his foot have to perform tayammum if it is harmful for him to pour water over the wound? What must he do in other cases?
Answer: If he is not able to wipe it he must place a spiritually clean piece of cloth over it and wipe that, and as a recommended precaution he should perform tayammum as well. If one is unable to put a piece of cloth over the wound he must perform tayammum in place of wudū’, and also perform a wudū’ without wiping.
Question 19: What must a person who cannot feel his hands, and as a result of that, cannot wash his face and arms or wipe his head or feet in wudū’ do regarding wudū’?
Answer: He must find a representative to perform the wudū’ for him if he cannot do it himself.
Question 20: Does a sick person who was unconscious a day or more due to his sickness or due to being made unconscious for an operation have to make up the prayers that he missed?
Answer: If one becomes unconscious involuntary he does not have to make up his prayers, or else, as an obligatory precaution, he must make up his prayers.
Question 21: Does a person who has had one or two legs amputated have to wipe in wudū’? If he does, how?
Answer: Wiping is not obligatory if the whole part of the body that has to be wiped is amputated.
Question 22: Does a person have to wipe his artificial leg while performing wudū’?
Answer: No.
Question 23: Can one wipe with an artificial hand if his hand has been amputated above the wrist?
Answer: No, and he must wipe with the remaining wetness, if there is no problem with his other hand he must wipe with the palm of his other hand.
Question 24: How should one perform the funeral prayers for one who has committed suicide?
Answer: If he was a Muslim it is obligatory to perform the funeral prayers in the same way as all other Muslims. The funeral prayer must be performed for him.
Question 25: Is it permissible to perform the prayers when one has blood on his body or clothes in two different places where each one is around the size of a dirham?
Answer: The prayer would not be correct if both of the spots of blood equal more than a dirham.
Question 26: Is it permissible to pray with gloves or shoes, even if they are spiritually clean?
Answer: There is no problem, but one’s big toe must reach the ground while performing prostration.
Question 27: What ruling does glasses whose frame is made from a substance mixed with gold worn by a man in prayer?
Answer: If it is gold and used for beauty it would be forbidden for a man to wear and it would invalidate his prayer.
Question 28: Suppose a sick person started his prayer standing up and then in the middle of his prayer he felt light-headed and weak. Is it permissible for him to perform the rest of his prayer sitting or lying down?
Answer: There is no problem in it if he is forced, but if there is time remaining and he is able to perform the prayers standing later during the time of prayer, he should perform them then.
Question 29: Are the prayers of an unconscious person who does not have any feeling, movement or thought excused? If he dies does his inheritor have to make up the prayers that were missed in this state?
Answer: An unconscious person does not have to pray nor does he have to make up the prayers he missed unless he purposely did something to become unconscious.
Question 30: The bodies of some of patients in a hospital are spiritually unclean due to injections and other reasons and other patients wear clothes that have become spiritually unclean. How should they pray if they cannot make themselves spiritually clean nor do they have access to spiritually clean clothing?
Answer: If one is unable to perform prayers in a spiritually clean state he must perform them in a spiritually unclean state. There are different scenarios regarding the clothes, if he is unable to remove them then he must perform prayers in his spiritually unclean clothing.
Question 31: Is one able to perform prayers with external or internal hemorrhoids?
Answer: One may perform the prayers with the blood from hemorrhoids, even if it is internal.
Rules Regarding Fasting
Question 32: Does phlegm from one’s throat invalidate one’s fast?
Answer: If it does not reach one’s mouth it does not invalidate one’s fast.
Question 33: What rulings does unnecessarily taking a vitamin rich injection have in regards to fasting?
Answer: Injections that are used in place of food invalidate the fast.
Question 34: Does putting inedible objects such as dentist equipment into one’s mouth invalidate one’s fast?
Answer: As long as nothing reaches one’s throat one’s fast does not become invalid.
Question 35: While fasting, is it permissible to brush one’s teeth? What is the ruling if the toothbrush has become wet and the wetness mixes with one’s saliva?
Answer: There is no problem in it, but the wetness that enters one’s mouth must not reach one’s throat.
Question 36: Some people who have asthma must use a spray in order to help them breathe. What is the ruling regarding these people and fasting?
Answer: If something enters their throat that is not pure breath, their fast would be invalidated.
Question 37: A doctor forbade a patient from fasting, but the patient knows that fasting is not harmful for him. What is the ruling regarding this?
Answer: If he knows that fasting is not harmful for him then he must fast.
Rules Regarding Food
Question 38: Eating certain types of food for certain patients is harmful. What ruling does eating these foods have for those patients?
Answer: According to the question, if the harm is such that it is necessary to stay away from it then it is not permissible to eat those types of food.
Question 39: If the only way a patient can be cured is by eating forbidden meat or spiritually unclean substances, would it be permissible for him to eat it?
Answer: It is permissible to eat the amount necessary to be cured.