What are the Conditions for a Valid Wudu?

                                                       Islam the Religion of Peace

What are the Conditions for a Valid Wudu?

The following three conditions are necessary for a valid wudu:

1. Clean water must penetrate and cover the skin. That is, all of the surfaces of the organs necessary to be washed must be wetted. Otherwise, wudu will not be valid. The Prophet stated the following about the people who do not wet their heels while making wudu. "Woe on those heels in Hell!"

2. The elimination of that states that invalidate wudu; that is, the end of menstruation and puerperum. Leakage of urine and blood is also a state that invalidates wudu. A person must not make wudu before the leakage of urine or blood ends. If they leak continuously, it is regarded as an excuse. What is mentioned above is for those who do not have any excuses. Therefore, one must not make wudu immediately after urinating before the leakage stops.

Even very little leakage after making wudu invalidates wudu.

3. Scraping off the things like wax, oil, dough, glue, etc that prevent water from penetrating the skin.

What are the Fards of Wudu?

There are four principles (fards) of wudu:

1 – Washing the face once.

2 – Washing the hands and the arms including the elbows once.

3 – Washing the feet including the heels once.

4 – To wipe one-fourth of the head.

It is fard to wash the arms, face and feet, the organs stated above, at least once.

It is sunnah to wash them three times.

What Part of the Face Needs to be Washed?

The part of the face to be washed in wudu is the part from the top part of the head where hair grows to the bottom of the chin vertically and the part between the two earlobes horizontally. The hairless area between the starting place of beard and the ears is regarded as part of the face, hence it needs to be washed.

How do People with Beards Need to Wash their Chins?

It is necessary to wash the skin at the bottom of the beard for the people with hirtellous beard. Those with bushy beard do not have to wash the skin at the bottom of their beard. It is enough for them to wet their beard.

Is it necessary to wash the inside of the eyes and the skin under the eyebrows and mustache?

No, it is not. It is not necessary to wash the inside of the eyes. Therefore, those who wear lenses do not have to remove their lenses when they make wudu. It is enough to wet the eyebrows and the mustache hairs. The skin under them does not have to be wetted.   

However, it is necessary to wet the skin under the eyebrows and the mustache to wet while making ghusl.

What does to Wipe the Head Mean?

Mash (wipe) lexically means to move the hand on something. It also means to wipe.

In religious terminology, it means to touch a place with wetness that has not been used anywhere else. The place that is touched can be the head, the khuffs worn on the feet or a wrapping on a wound. What matters is that the wetness should not be used anywhere else before. For instance, the wetness remaining after washing the arms cannot be used in order to wipe the head. For, this wetness was used on the arm. It is necessary to wet the hand again before the head is wiped. (However, it is permissible to wipe the arms with the wetness remaining from the head.)

What Amount of the Head is Fard to Wipe?

The amount of the head that is fard to be wiped is one-fourth of it. The Messenger of Allah wiped the upper part of his forehead, that is, the front part of his head. Therefore, it is sunnah to wipe the front part of the face. However, any part of the head can be wiped as long as one-fourth of the head is wiped and the part below the ears is not wiped. For, the part of the head that can be wiped is the part over the two ears. If any one-fourth of that part is wiped, mash is all right.

States that do not Prevent Wudu:

* If a person lacks one or more wudu organs, he is exempted from washing it/them. However, if an organ is cut off but some part of it exists, the existing part needs to washed. For instance, a person whose hand is cut off needs to wash his hand up to his elbows. If his arm is cut off completely, he is exempted from washing it.

* If a person definitely knows that he has made wudu but doubts whether he has broken it, he is regarded to have wudu. For, certain knowledge is not removed by doubt. If the opposite is in question, that is, if a person knows that he has broken his wudu but doubts whether he has made wudu after it, he is regarded not to have wudu.

* If a person doubts during wudu or after it whether he has washed some organs, he needs to was those organs unless he is a person with delusions. If he is a person with delusions, his doubt is not taken into consideration. His wudu is regarded to be complete.

The paint left on the nails of a painter does not invalidate his wudu due to necessity. However, paints that form a layer on the nails and that prevent water from penetrating but that are not used due to a necessity prevent the validity of wudu.

* The inside of a boil which has improved but whose skin has not come off yet is not washed.

* If fingers have stuck to one another due to a temporary reason, or if a long nail has been curved inwards and covered the finger tip, or if one or some of the wudu organs have been covered with something that prevents water from penetrating the skin like, wax, dough, glue, oil paint, etc, they have to be removed.

* The dirt in the nail and on the body, the dirt caused by fleas and houseflies do not prevent wudu.

* If there is a tight ring on the finger, it is necessary to move it and allow water to pass under it.

* If hairy places are shaved after making wudu or ghusl, those places do not have to be washed or wiped again.

* If nails are clipped, mustache is trimmed and skin is raised after wudu, wudu is not invalidated.