Short answer
No. Picking or blowing your nose does not break wudu, because mucus is pure. In the Hanafi school it breaks only if blood flows out of the nose. A speck of blood on your fingertip that did not run does not break it.
Mucus is pure, and clearing it does not affect wudu. Blood breaks wudu only if it flows down to the soft lower part of the nose; a spot on the finger that would not have flowed by itself does not.
Other madhhabs
- Shafi'i
- Even flowing blood from the nose does not break wudu.
- Maliki
- Blood from the nose does not break wudu.
- Hanbali
- A large amount of blood breaks wudu; a little does not.
Explanation
Picking your nose or blowing it into a tissue does not break your wudu (ablution) in any school. Mucus, like spit and tears, is pure, and removing it is not something leaving the private parts.
Blood is where the Hanafi school differs from the others, because flowing blood breaks wudu:
- A dried crust or a speck of blood on your finger: does not break wudu.
- Blood that runs down to the soft lower part of the nose: breaks wudu (see bleeding).
- A nosebleed that stays high inside and does not come down: does not break wudu.
In wudu itself, the sunnah is to draw water into the nose and blow it out with the left hand, three times. Clearing the nose this way is part of wudu, not a breaker of it.
During salah, avoid picking your nose, since needless movement is disliked in prayer. If you have nosebleeds that do not stop for a whole prayer time, the rules of a ma'dhur apply.
The evidence
Sahih al-Bukhari 228
Sahih... إنما ذلك عرق وليس بحيض ...
"That is only a vein, it is not menstruation."
The Hanafi school reads this as showing that flowing blood breaks wudu.
Where the ruling is recorded
- Radd al-Muhtar (Ibn Abidin), Kitab al-Taharah, nawaqid al-wudu. Blood breaks wudu when it reaches the soft part of the nose.
- Nur al-Idah with Maraqi al-Falah, Kitab al-Taharah, section on what breaks wudu. Flowing blood breaks wudu.
Checked by our team. For a more accurate answer to your own situation, consult a scholar. Quran translation by Sahih International. Hadith Arabic from the standard editions of the six books and the Muwatta, with gradings as recorded there; the English is our own rendering. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.