How to Perform Wudu (Ablution)?

Step#1

Make Niyyah (Intention)

Make intention or niyyah for ablution. It is necessary to make a niyyah for any act that is performed for the sake of Allah. The niyyah for wudu is done by centering yourself, quieting your thoughts and focusing seriously on what you are doing i.e. purifying and cleansing to present before Allah in salat. Saying “Bismillah” is verbally enough.

Step#2

Wash your hands

Use your left hand to wash the right hand three times and vice versa. Make sure to wash every part of hand that is skin between the fingers and all the way up to wrists.

Step#3

Rinse mouth

Use your right hand to cup water into your mouth three times. Swish it around in your cheeks and the back of your throat. Do this thoroughly to get all the remaining food in your mouth out but do not swallow the water on purpose.

Step#4

Clean your nose

Use your right hand to cup water and inhale into your nose and then exhale it. Do this three times.

Step#5

Wash Face

Wash your face three times by spreading your hands from your right ear to the left, and from the edge of the hair to the chin.

Step#6

Wash your arms

Wash your lower arms from wrists to elbows, leaving no part dry. From your wrist to your elbow, wash your right arm with your left hand three times and then wash your left arm with your right hand three times.

Step#7

Perform Masah

Clean your head. Using your wet hands, gently wipe your forehead from the eyebrow to the hairline. Also wipe down your hair.  Wipe your ears inside and out. With the same water, use your finger to clean all the crevices of your ear. Then using your thumbs clean behind your ears from the bottom upward. Also wipe the back of your neck, and your temples.

Step#8

Wash Feet

Wash each of your feet. Start with the right foot. Clean up to the ankles and be sure water goes between the toes. 

Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said,

"If anyone performs Wudu' properly, then comes to the Friday prayer, listens to the Khutbah (religious talk) attentively and keeps silent, his (minor) sins between that Friday and the following Friday will be forgiven, with the addition of three more days; but he who touches pebbles has caused an interruption."

[Muslim]

Commentary:

There are three things that should be done on Fridays: performing the whdu properly, listening to the khutbah attentively, and keeping silent. A person who does all three will have sins forgiven between two consecutive Fridays with the addition of three more days.

1. Performs ablution properly means to do it in accordance with the Sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH). One should not exceed the prescribed limits, nor should one use water extravagantly and should wash every organ of the body involved in wudu, at the most for three times. This Hadith also makes it evident that it is more meritorious to perform wudu at home.

2. Sins of ten days are pardoned because every virtue has at least ten-times reward. Here sins means minor sins as the major ones.

3. One should listen to the Khutbah quietly with full attention. One must avoid toying with anything (such as straws, one's watch, etc.) that diverts the attention and deprives from the reward of jummah.

How to perform Wudu

Wuhu is an essential part of Muslim hygiene. It is necessary for a Muslim to be in a state of wudu before performing salat or reciting Quran. It is an act of washing exposed body parts using clean water. It is often translated as ‘partial ablution’ as opposed to ghusl or “full ablution”.

The Qur'anic mandate for wudhu comes in the sixth ayat of sura 5 (Al-Ma'ida):

 "O you who believe! when you rise up to prayer, wash your faces and your hands as far as the elbows, wipe your heads and your feet to the ankles; and if you are under an obligation to perform a total ablution, then wash (yourselves) and if you are sick or on a journey, or one of you come from the privy, or you have touched the women, and you cannot find water, betake yourselves to pure earth and wipe your faces and your hands therewith, God does not desire to put on you any difficulty, but He wishes to purify you and that He may complete His favor on you, so that you may be grateful."

Steps

1-Make the neeyat (intention) to perform wudhu

2 - Pray Bismilla-hirrahmaan-nirraheem

3 - Wash the hands up to and including the wrists - also wash between the fingers

4 - Wash your mouth 3 times by using your right hand to put water in your mouth and rinsing (try to gargle also allowing the water to reach the throat)) - between rinsing brush your teeth with miswaak or your right index finger. Miswaak will be more beneficial as this is a sunnah of prophet Muhammad (saw)

5 - Wash the nose 3 times. Each time, gently place water into the nose with the right hand, and exhale by placing left at the top of your nose (releasing anything in the nose).

6 - Wash the entire face three times (from the top of the forehead to the bottom of the chin, and from earlobe to earlobe), Place water in your hands by holding both hands together and then gently pour the water over your face making sure you rub the face from he top of the forehead to the bottom of the chin, and from earlobe to earlobe - try not to splash the water too harshly.

7 - Wash both arms up to the elbow 3 times. Pass fingers of both hands through each other.

8 - Wet hands and starting with your hands flat on the top of your head near the hairline, wipe them to the back of the neck. This is only done once. This act is called masah of the head.

9 - With wet fingers, place thumbs at backs of ears, use index finger on curves of ear and middle finger to wash the ears (front and back). Then the back of the neck is wiped with the reverse of your hand. This is only done once. This is called making masah the ears.

10 - Run all fingers through the beard

11 - Wash both feet up to the ankles. Start with right foot and make sure you clean in between the toes using figures from your left hand.

Rinse your hands when finished