Question:
Assalamualaikum wbt. Is baby’s spit-up that was on a person’s clothes invalidates his prayer? Is it the same as vomit?
Answer:
Waalaikumussalam wrt wbt,
Alhamdulillah, praise and thanks to Allah for the countless blessings He has blessed us all with. Blessings and salutations to the Prophet Muhammad PBUH, his wives, his family, companions and all those that follow his teachings to the day of judgement.
In madhhab al-Syafie, baby’s spit-up (also known as regurgitation or gastroesophageal reflux) is ruled as najis mutawasittah (moderate). It is the flow of food from the stomach to the mouth usually happens in babies under one year old because their digestive system is still developing. Thus, it is wajib to remove it by washing it with mutlak water. Imam al-Syafie said in al-Umm (1/32):
وَإِذَا قَاءَ الرَّجُلُ غَسَلَ فَاهُ وَمَا أَصَابَ الْقَيْءُ مِنْهُ لَا يَجْزِيهِ غَيْرُ ذَلِكَ
And if a man throws up, then he should wash his mouth and the area the vomit come into contact with, it is not enough if it not cleaned as such.
A baby’s spit-up is considered as najis even if the characteristic is different from vomit when the food has already reached the stomach then flowed out. The reason is, the function of a stomach is to digest the food. For example, a person drinks some water and quickly regurgitate it out, even if there are no changes on the water, it is still considered as najis. Food and drink are originally pure and changes to faeces and urine after going through the processes in the stomach, thus, the stomach is the place where food is degraded. Hence, spit-up of a baby is equivalent to faeces and urine.
Exceptions are given in exigent situations, where it is forgiven. Shafi’ite scholars state in their opinion that if a person is tested with a baby who always spit-up (too frequent), then it is forgiven if the spit-up is on his clothes or body, but would still be considered as najis if it is in water, such as the blood of louse. What is meant by exigent situation in this matter is when the baby spit-up too often that it is rare for the baby not to spit-up. The same is analogically deduced (qiyas) for the mouth of a baby that has spit-up and then the mother nursed the baby. The residue spit-up in the baby’s mouth would not make the body parts of the mother that came in contact with it to become najis. Refer al-Mausu`ah al-Fiqhiyah al-Kuwaitiyyah (34/86), al-Mu’tamad fi al-Fiqh al-Syafie (1/49)
Thus, in our opinion, the spit-up of a baby who is tested with the condition that the baby would spit-up too often is forgiven if it comes into contact with the baby’s body and clothes or the clothes of the baby’s mother who is taking care of the baby if the amount is considered a little for it is extremely hard to not come into contact with the najis.
Wallahua’lam.