Wudu — Ritual Ablution

Wudu (ritual ablution) is the purification required before performing Salah, Tawaf, and touching the Quran. Allah commands: "O you who believe, when you rise to pray, wash your faces and your forearms to the elbows and wipe over your heads and wash your feet to the ankles" (Quran 5:6). The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "Allah does not accept the prayer of any one of you if he breaks his wudu, until he makes wudu again" (Sahih al-Bukhari).

Obligatory Acts of Wudu

The obligatory (fard) acts are those without which wudu is invalid. The Quran specifies four: washing the face, washing the arms to the elbows, wiping the head, and washing the feet to the ankles. The Shafi'i, Maliki, and Hanbali schools add the intention (niyyah) and performing the acts in order (tartib) as obligatory. The Maliki school also requires continuity (muwalat), meaning no long gap between washing each limb. The Hanafi school considers only the four Quranic acts as obligatory and classifies the rest as sunnah.

Sunnah Acts of Wudu

The recommended acts include: saying Bismillah before beginning, washing the hands three times, rinsing the mouth (madmadah) and nose (istinshaq), starting with the right side, washing each limb three times (the obligatory minimum is once), wiping the ears, running fingers through the beard, running water between the toes, and making dua after completion. The Prophet's dua after wudu includes: "I testify that none has the right to be worshipped except Allah alone, with no partner, and I testify that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger" (Sahih Muslim).

Nullifiers of Wudu

Wudu is broken by: anything that exits from the two private parts (urine, stool, gas), deep sleep, loss of consciousness, touching the private parts directly (according to the Shafi'i and Hanbali schools, based on the hadith in Sunan al-Nasai; the Hanafi school does not consider this a nullifier), and eating camel meat (according to the Hanbali school, based on a hadith in Sahih Muslim). Vomiting and bleeding break wudu in the Hanafi school but not in the Shafi'i school. Touching a member of the opposite sex breaks wudu in the Shafi'i school but not in the Hanafi school.

The Virtue of Wudu

Wudu carries immense spiritual reward. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "When a Muslim servant washes his face in wudu, every sin he contemplated with his eyes is washed away with the last drop of water. When he washes his hands, every sin he committed with his hands is washed away with the last drop of water. When he washes his feet, every sin toward which his feet walked is washed away, until he emerges purified of sin" (Sahih Muslim). He also said: "Shall I not tell you of something by which Allah erases sins and raises ranks? Perfecting the wudu despite difficulty, taking many steps to the mosque, and waiting for the next prayer after prayer. That is the ribat (guarding the frontier)" (Sahih Muslim).