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Fatwa CenterA praying person unintentionally swallowing remnants of food between his teeth
Question
dear brothers, i have a question regarding ingestion in prayer. Suppose i ate before the prayer and washed my mouth properly before i start the prayer, but then during the prayer some tiny particles are still present in the mouth, especially when i eat beef, chicken etc, some part get stuck between the teeth, which is unintentional, does that cause the prayer to be invalid? Lately this has happened i ended up redoing all the prayers that i prayed in that state. Please advise.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
If food remains between the teeth, then this does not invalidate the prayer if the praying person did not swallow it during the prayer. If you mean that you swallowed it while praying, then if it is small and not a solid substance and it may go down with the saliva, then this does not invalidate the prayer as this is difficult to spit out.
On the other hand, if it has a dimension and the praying person swallowed it intentionally, and not out of forgetfulness, then the prayer becomes void because he ate (while praying). The jurists 
stated that if a praying person "takes out from between his teeth something that is not a solid substance and he swallows it, then his prayer becomes void. Their evidence is that it is not difficult to avoid that…"
Allaah Knows best.
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