Is madhi (pre-ejaculation fluid) impure? هل المذي نجس؟

Praise be to Allah, and may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, his family and his companions.

As to what follows:

In response to your question, we say, and with Allah Almighty lies all success:

Madhi (pre-ejaculation fluid) is impure according to the consensus of scholars. The majority of scholars have stated this and I do not know of any disagreement. So madhi, which is the transparent sticky fluid that is emitted at the onset of sexual arousal, either in the man or the woman, is impure. Therefore, one is required to clean the clothing and body that is affected by it.

Moreover, there are two cases of this: either the impurity is a heavy or dense impurity, or it is a light form of impurity. So in the case of someone who has a lot of madhi (i.e. it is out of his control), his impurity is light. This is why `Ali bin Abi Talib told Miqdad (may Allah be pleased with them) to ask the Prophet (peace be upon him) about madhi, due to him being affected a lot by it. So the prophet (peace be upon him) said, “Perform wudhu and nadh (wash) your sexual organ.” [Muslim].

Nadh is: to splash or sprinkle by which water reaches or touches the place without completely encompassing it. This is because the impurity in this case is light and frequent in occurrence. On the other hand, if this madhi does not emit from a person except very little or rarely, then it is treated as any other impurity, requiring proper washing, as sprinkling is not enough.

This is the difference between madhi being of light impurity and of it being like the rest of the impurities. So it is considered a light impurity in the case of hardship and difficulty due to the excessive amount of discharge; for, some males and females say, “With the slightest sexual arousal madhi is discharged, and sometimes with no arousal there is discharge.” So in this case, it is enough to sprinkle water on the affected area and perform wudhu, and a full bath is not mandatory. The full bath is only mandatory when there is ejaculation of liquid upon sexual arousal. Allah Almighty said:

 “So let man observe from what he was created. He was created from a fluid, ejected.” [al-Tariq 86:5-6]

This characteristic is not fulfilled in madhi because it is not discharged as in the case of ejaculation. Hence, the full bath is not required, rather what is mandatory is washing the affected area and performing wudhu. 

And Allah knows best.