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.

The tooth-brush

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