Compulsory Actions For Ablution
Q. How is it to say the prayer, without ablution?
A. It is a big sin. Some religious scholars hold the person Kafir, who intentionally offers the prayer, without ablution.
Q. What is the proof of ablution being a necessity for saying the prayer?
A. The following verse of the Holy Qur’an stipulates that ablution is an essential pre-requisite for prayer.
(O Believers when you rise up for prayer, wash your face, and your hands up to the elbows. And lightly rub your heads. And wash your feet up to the ankles).
And Hadrat Muhammad (Peace be upon him) has said: MIFTAHUS SALATIT TUHUR (Cleanliness is the key to prayer)
Q. What is the minimum that may be called washing?
A. To pour water on a limb, sufficient enough to wet it, permitting one or two drops to fall down. This is washing in its lowest term Wetting to a lesser degree, is not ‘washing’. For example, if one moves wet hands over the face, using so little water that all of it is absorbed and no drops fall down, it will not be considered that one has ‘washed’ the face. Ablution (Wudu) therefore, will not be complete.
Q. How many times, parts be washed, and whose washing is obligatory for ablution?
A. Washing them once, is obligatory (Fard) Washing them up to three times, is the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him). And to wash more than three times is undesirable (Makruh) and not permissible.
Q. What portion of the face must be washed?
A. The face must be washed from the hair of the forehead to down under the chin, and from the tip of one ear to the tip of the second ear.
Q. Is ablution valid if a small area of the limb, washing of which is obligatory, is left dry?
A. Even if a tiny spot, as small as one hair, is left dry, the ablution will not be valid.
Q. If one has six fingers, is it obligatory to wash also the sixth finger?
A. Yes. It is obligatory to wash the sixth finger also. Similarly, any additional growth within a part of a limb, whose washing is obligatory, must also be washed.
Q. What is the meaning of performing Massah?
A. To move wet hands over a part of the body is known as Massah
Q. Must a person wet the hands afresh, for performing Massah of the head, or would the moisture still left on them (while washing other parts of the body), suffice for the purpose?
A. It is better to take fresh water, but if hands are wet after washing,
Massah is allowed with them. But Massah is not allowed with hands with which Massah has been performed once before. Similarly, Massah is not allowed with hands: a) soaked from some other wet part, b) or hands moistened by another such part on which Massah has already been done.
Q. If there are drops of rain on the bare head, and such water drops are spread by a dry hand all over the head, would that serve the purpose of Massah?
A. Yes, the Massah is performed.
Q. Is it necessary, in ablution, to wash the inside of the eyes?
A. No, it is not necessary to wash the inside of the eyes, the nose, or the mouth.
Q. If after ablution one shaves the head, or cuts fingernails, will it be necessary to do fresh Massah of the head, or wash the fingernails again?
A. No, it is not required to be done.
Q. If one’s hand is amputated (cut) below the elbow, is it necessary to wash that limb (hand)?
A. Yes, as long as the elbow or some other portion below it is intact, it must be washed.