Does wudu take place with nail polish applied? In ignorance I prayed many prayers having performed wudu with nail polish on; what will happen to those prayers? And nowadays “breathable” or “halal nail polish” is available in the market, about which it is claimed that water passes through it — will wudu be valid with it?

The basic condition for the validity of wudu is that water reach the skin of the limbs of wudu directly. Allah Almighty has commanded the washing of the hands and the face (Surah al-Ma'idah: 6), and washing is realised only when water reaches the limb. About a man whose heel remained dry, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Woe to the heels from the Fire” (Sahih al-Bukhari: 60; Sahih Muslim: 241) — that is, if even a small part of a limb remains dry, the wudu is not complete. On this very basis, Imam Shafi'i, may Allah have mercy on him, said that if there is something on a limb which prevents water from reaching the skin, the washing of that limb is not valid until that thing is removed (Al-Umm: 1/44).

Ordinary nail polish forms a hard layer (coat) over the nail which prevents water from reaching the nail; therefore, wudu does not take place while it is on. In Fatawa Al-Lajnah Ad-Da'imah (5/218) it is stated that if the colour (polish) is a barrier to water, removing it before wudu is necessary, otherwise the wudu is not valid — unlike henna, whose colour penetrates into the skin and does not form a layer. This same ruling applies to every make-up and colour that forms a corporeal layer. However, it should be clear that polish by itself does not prevent prayer: a woman who performs wudu and then applies polish, her prayer with that wudu is valid; the issue is only of the next wudu, which will take place only after removing the polish.

Since that wudu was not valid, the prayers prayed with that wudu were also not valid, and making them up is obligatory — this is the explicit statement of the detailed answer based on this same fatwa of Al-Lajnah Ad-Da'imah (IslamQA: 103738): that sin may indeed be forgiven due to ignorance, but the validity of prayer is not conditional upon knowledge; by the invalidity of purity, the prayer too remains invalid. So the questioner should estimate those prayers and make them up — keep praying a few prayers daily, gradually, until a predominant supposition arises that the responsibility has been discharged. This is not a burden; it is the path of repentance and correction.

Here the principle will proceed not by claim but by reality: for wudu, the mere reaching of moisture is not sufficient; the flowing of water over the limb and its reaching it is necessary. The investigation about these products is precisely that they pass air and moisture partially, but it is not proven that in the washing of wudu water actually reaches the nail — in the detailed answer of IslamQA (202971) this same doubt has been explicitly stated, that the claims of the companies are not verified and moisture is not a substitute for water. Until it becomes certain through some reliable test that water reaches the nail, precaution and the preponderant view is precisely that it too be kept in the ruling of ordinary polish and be removed before wudu. The label of “halal” does not become a Shariah proof. It should be remembered that displaying nail polish as an adornment before non-mahram men is also not permissible, whatever type it may be.

A Maqasid-based caution: The key to the acceptance of prayer is purity; the Shariah has not given this concession so that, in the name of facility, the very foundation of worship be made doubtful. Removing a thing about which there is doubt that it blocks water, and then performing wudu, is a matter of a few moments — in this alone lies the protection of prayer.

Translated from the original Urdu fatwa.