Lesson No 34

LESSONS IN ISLAM

(TA'LIMUL-ISLAM)

BOOK III Section II

Holy Acts

or

Islamic Practices

More about Ablution

17. How is it to perform the Salat without ablution?

Ans. It is a grave sin. So much so that some of the religious scholars hold that a person intentionally posturing for Salat without ablution, is a Kafir.

17. What is the evidence to show that ablution is one of the necessary conditions of Salat?

Ans. The following verse from the holy Quran:

YA AY-YU-HAL-LAZINA AMANU IZA QUMTUM ILAS-SALATI FAGHSILU WUJUHAKUM WA AIDIYAKUM ILAL-MARAFIQI WAMSAHU BI-RU'USIKUM WA ARJULAKUM ILAL-KA'BAIN.

(O believers when you stand up for Salat wash your faces and your hands up to the elbows and wipe your heads and your feet up to the ankles.)

Hadrat Muhammad (peace be upon him) says:

MIFTAHUS-SALATIT-TAHURU

(cleanness is the key  [prerequisite for] to Salat)

MORE ABOUT THE COMMANDED ACTS IN ABLUTION

17. What should be the minimum limit for washing that may qualify for the term?

Ans. The minimum required limit is to pass enough water on a limb to allow a drop of water or two to trickle down it. Less than this will not do. For example, if a person merely passes wet hands over the face or puts so little water on his face that no drop trickles down it, the face will not be considered to have been duly washed. Consequently, ablution will be incomplete.

17. How many times should one wash the limbs meant for washing in ablution?

Ans. Washing once is obligatory. To do it thrice is Masnun (precept of the Prophet, peace be upon him). To perform it more than three times is Makruh, (undesirable and forbidden).

17. What parts of the face are commanded to be washed in ablution?

Ans. It is obligatory to wash the face from hair-roots of the fore-head down to the lower side of the chin and from the tip of the right ear to that of the left.

17. Will the ablution be valid if a certain part, however small, which is commanded to be washed is left dry?

Ans. Even if a hair-thin spot of a particular limb is left dry, ablution will not be deemed as valid.

17. If a person has six fingers in one of his hands, is it obligatory to wash even this extra finger?

Ans. Yes, it is obligatory. Similarly, any additional growth within a part or limb whose washing is obligatory, must also be washed.

17. What does Mas-ha (the act of wiping) mean?

Ans. Wiping out a part of the body with wet hands is known as Mas-ha.

17. Must a person wet the palms of his hand afresh to perform the Mas-ha of the head, or the previous moisture still extant on the hands will do?

Ans. It is better to wet the palms afresh. But it does not matter much if one simply performs the Mas-ha with the moisture still extant. But once the wet palms have been used for one Mas-ha, the same cannot be used for the Mas-ha of any other part of the body. Similarly, the Mas-ha is not valid if one wets one's palms with any other part already washed or wiped with wet hands.

17. If rain drops fall on one's bare head and a person causes the rain drops to spread across the head, will the Mas-ha be considered to have been performed.

Ans. Yes, it would be considered as performed.

17. Is it obligatory to wash the inside of the eye sockets?

Ans. No, it is not obligatory to wash the inside of the eye sockets, or of the nose or the mouth.

17. Is it compulsory to re-do the Mas-ha if one has got one's head shaved, or to rewash the nails if they have been cut after ablution?

Ans. No.

17. In case the wrist of a person below the elbow is missing, is it necessary to wash the remaining part?

Ans. Yes, so long as the elbow or some other portion below it is intact, it must be washed.