up to the elbows, and wipe your heads, and (wash)18 your feet up to the ankles” (5:6).
The practice of the Holy Prophet, as recorded in Ḥadīth contains substantially the same details. Briefly these may be described as follows:
1. The hands are first washed up to the wrists.
2. The mouth is then cleaned with water, or by rinsing with a toothbrush and by gargling if necessary.
3. The nostrils are then cleaned by snuffing a little water into them and blowing the nose if necessary.19
4. The face is then washed from the forehead to the chin and from one ear to the other.
5. Then the right arm and after that the left, is washed from the wrist to the elbow.
6. The head is then wiped over with wet hands, three fingers of both hands, between the little finger and the thumb, being joined together, and the inner side of the ears wiped with forefingers and its outer side with thumbs.
7. The feet are then washed up to the ankles, the right foot being washed first.
If socks or stockings are being worn, and they have been put on after performing an ablution, it is not necessary to take them off; the three fingers of the wet hand may be passed over them. The same practice may be resorted to in the case of shoes. If the socks or the shoes are then taken off, the wudzū’ remains. It is, however, necessary that the feet should be washed once in every twenty-four hours.20
Wudzū’ may be performed before every prayer, but the necessity for it arises only when there has been a natural evacuation,21 or when a man has been fast asleep.
It will be seen that, besides the religious object which is to remind man of the necessity for inner purification, the great aim in wudzū’ is to foster habits of cleanliness. Such parts of the body as are generally exposed are washed time after time, so that dust or uncleanness of
18 The Shī‘ahs hold that the feet are simply to be wiped like the head, but in the received text of the Holy Qur’ān, the words used are arjula-kum, where arjula (feet) having a naṣab over it, is the objective case and is governed by the verb aghsilū which means wash, the meaning thus being “wash your feet.” If arjul had been governed by imsaḥū-bi meaning “wipe your feet”, the words would have read arjuli-kum, not arjula-kum.
19 It will be seen that the Holy Qur’ān, in speaking of wudzū’, begins with the washing of the face, without speaking of the first three stages. The reason is that the washing of the face includes these three things, the washing of the hands to wrists as a preliminary to, and cleansing the mouth and the nose as part of the washing of the face. The Ḥadīth only gives greater details.
20 Wudzū’, as described here, is taken from the most authentic ḥadīth, and is a very simple process, the object of which is to cleanse the parts which are generally exposed. Later theologians have added a large number of unnecessary details. Everybody knows best how to clean a particular part of the body and whether to wash it once or twice or thrice. As regards the particular adhkār (recitations) to be repeated at the washing of particular parts, authoritative opinion is that all these adhkār are fabrications, with the exception of saying bismillāh at the beginning and repeating the kalimah at the end, adding the words Allāh-ummaj‘al-nī min al-tawwābīn waj‘al-nī min al-mutatahhirīn. “O Allāh! make me of those who turn to Thee again and again and make me of those who purify themselves” (ZM. I, p. 50).
21 Natural evacuation includes the passing of urine, stools and wind. The Holy Qur’ān speaks of natural evacuation as coming from ghā‘it (4:43), the last word meaning low land to which people generally resorted for a privy. The use of this word indicates that anything which offends others should be done in a lonely place, and the mosque, where other people are assembled, is not such a place.