❖ Thick Layer or Coating on Teeth and the Validity of Wudu and Salah
Source: Fatawa Amun Puri by Shaykh Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Amun Puri
❀ Question:
If there is a thick layer or coating on the teeth, is the wudu valid? And what is the ruling regarding the salah performed with such wudu?
❀ Answer:
Whatever is placed on the teeth becomes part of them; therefore, the wudu is valid, and the salah performed with such wudu is also valid.
❀ ‘Abdul Rahman ibn ‘Arfajah رحمه الله narrated:
إن جده عرفجة بن أسعد، قطع أنفه يوم الكلاب، فاتخذ أنفا من ورق، فأنتن عليه، فأمره النبى صلى الله عليه وسلم، فاتخذ أنفا من ذهب
“In the Battle of Kulab, his grandfather, ‘Arfajah ibn As‘ad رضي الله عنه, had his nose cut off. He made a nose of silver, but it began to give a foul smell. So the Prophet ﷺ instructed him to make a nose of gold, and he did so.”
(Sunan Abi Dawud: 4232, Sunan al-Tirmidhi: 1770, with a hasan chain)
Imam al-Tirmidhi رحمه الله graded this hadith as hasan, and Imam Ibn Hibban رحمه الله (no. 5462) authenticated it as sahih.
This hadith is evidence that if an artificial thing is attached to a limb of wudu, the wudu remains valid—just as the Companion had an artificial nose fitted, and certainly the nose is washed in wudu.
