Sleeping and suspecting one has broken ritual purity: Is wudu' obligatory?

The questioner : I say, following the Shaykh of Islam, that if a person sleeps after having broken his ritual purity, and then falls asleep in such a way that he would not notice if he broke his purity again, then he must perform wudu'. Now, the Shaykh, there is certainty that he did not break his purity, and he is only in doubt that he did.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : Of course, Abu Shadi.

The Shaykh : Since they say that doubt takes the place of certainty, and certainty does not remain unless it is removed by certainty, they mean that certainty remains until it is removed by certainty. In other words, since the default here is that when sleep occurs, the state of ritual impurity occurs, and he is not certain that the state of ritual impurity did not occur, this doubt takes the place of certainty.

The questioner : The position in which a person sleeps does not make a difference. However, it is known that some postures are more likely to preserve one's state than others, and in some postures, a person may break his state even while he is conscious, so in some cases, it is almost impossible [to preserve the state].

The Shaykh : As long as the principle with us is that if he broke his state, he would have felt it, then there is no difficulty in any case.