Question:
If a fasting person has a wet dream during the day in Ramadan, will his fast be invalidated or not? And is it obligatory for him to perform ghusl immediately?
Answer:
A wet dream does not invalidate the fast, because it does not occur by the fasting person’s choice. However, ghusl of janabah is required for him. And if a wet dream occurs after the Fajr prayer and he delays the ghusl until the time of the Zuhr prayer, there is no harm. Similarly, if a man has intercourse with his wife at night and performs ghusl after the break of dawn, there is also no harm.
Because it is established from the Prophet ﷺ:
أنه كان يصبح جنبا من جماع ثم يغتسل و يصوم
”That he would enter the morning in a state of janabah due to intercourse, then perform ghusl and fast.”
Likewise, women in menstruation and postnatal bleeding who become pure at night and perform ghusl after the break of dawn, there is no sin on them either, and their fast is valid. However, it is not permissible for them, or for a person in janabah, to delay the ghusl or the prayer until sunrise. Rather, all of them are obligated to hasten to perform ghusl before sunrise, so that they can offer the Fajr prayer on its time.
And it is obligatory on a man to hasten the ghusl of janabah before the Fajr prayer so that he can offer the Fajr prayer in congregation. And Allah is the Granter of success.
”Shaykh Ibn Baz, may Allah have mercy on him.”
