Many of us these days, after being guided to Islam make the mistake of learning certain acts of worship and never looking back to check if we actually learned them correctly or not. Thus, we continue to incorrectly perform these acts of worship and even teach them to others. This is a situation that many fall into, because as we begin to learn in the correct manner, we forget about all of those things that we obtained before we actually learned how to acquire information in the correct manner. Therefore, we should all take it as our responsibility to look back at those aspects that we think are the small things, and see what we have been doing correctly, and which things need to be corrected.
The issue that we want to address today is the issue of the Wudu. When we look around, we find that many people actually make wudu differently that you do. Some of those difference are acceptable and others are not. We will not get into in this particular article the issue about what are these differences. Rather our focus will be making sure that we all have the essential information about the correct performance of the wudu, so that we know that we are doing it correctly every day, so that our prayers and other types of worship are acceptable. Who wants to know that they have been performing types of worship all this time, just to have it being declared unacceptable while we were afforded the chance to learn correctly, yet decided to turn away? None of us of course. So let’s work together to make sure that we are all doing this correctly.
Dividing It Up:
The first thing that we want to make sure of, is that we understand that all of the actions in the Wudu are divided into two different categories. The first of these are the Fard (Obligatory) parts of the Wudu. The second category are those things that are Sunnan (non obligatory) actions done in the Wudu. The fard parts of the wudu are those things that if they are not present in your wudu, then your wudu is not acceptable. This in turn means that those things that are not acceptable except that you have a proper wudu, are also not acceptable. As you can probably tell from their name, those sunnan acts are those that if you do them, it will increase your reward for each one that you do. Yet, if you do not do them, it will not effect the acceptance of your wudu, and it will be considered valid.
After knowing this, I hope that now you can see how important it is that you come to know the differences between them, so as to not ever leave out anything that will cause your worship not to be accepted. This is not to say that you should not worry about those sunnan acts, because if you refrain from completing them, you are only denying yourself an abundance of reward from Allah, and no one wants that for themselves. I only wanted to point out these parts as a way of explaining what acts fall into which category, and which are more important to the acceptance of our worship than the others. Barak Allahu Feekum.
The Fard (Obligatory) Acts:
- The Niyyah (Intention) is performed when you wash your face.
- The washing of the face.
- The washing of the hands to and including the elbows.
- The wiping over part of the head.
- The washing of the feet to and including the ankles.
- The performance of these actions, done in the aforementioned order.
The Sunnan (Non Obligatory) Acts:
- The saying of “Bismillah”.
- The washing of the hands before putting them in the vessel to begin the wudu.
- The rinsing of the mouth and the nose.
- The wiping of the entirety of the head.
- The wiping of the ears (inside and out) with water separate from that used to wipe the head.
- The running the wet fingers through the thick or bushy beard.
- The running of the wet fingers between the fingers and toes when being washed.
- The performance of the actions on the right side of the body before the left.
- The performance of the appropriate actions three times.
- Connecting each of the actions with one another, so much that one part doesn’t dry before the next part is done.
In Conclusion:
Knowing these things and where they fall, in terms of their categories will aide you in understanding what wudu is acceptable and which is not. It will also aide you in understanding how to obtain extra reward when performing this extremely important type of worship, that other types of worship are only accepted if it is accepted. Therefore, we must take a mintue, memorize these things, put them into practice and teach or share them with your loved ones. We need to all begin to want the same good that we want for ourselves for our loved ones, and share with them that which will lead to their being successful in this life. After all, isn’t this what we want for ourselves?
May Allah aide us all in doing that which He has commanded us to do, in the best manner possible so that we meet Him while He is pleased with us. May He increase us all in beneficial knowledge and the desire to act upon it. Allahuma ameen.
