Ghusl on Ḥajj

The third occasion is for one performing Ḥajj: it is sunnah to make ghusl after the sun passes its zenith on the Day of ʿArafah, for anyone present there in iḥrām and performing the rites of Ḥajj. In recent decades this has been almost impossible to arrange in practice, and in earlier decades it was harder still — twenty years ago there were not even toilets to be found in ʿArafah at all, unheard of, and a number of women are reported to have died there for want of one, holding what could not be held in public until something within them finally gave way; funeral processions used regularly to come out of ʿArafah for this very reason. Since then the authorities have installed a great many small facilities, one toilet, by report, for every seventeen thousand pilgrims in some places, and for every forty-five thousand in others, combining a shower and a toilet within a single small space, with a hose fitted either above or below depending on which particular facility is provided — and long queues waiting outside every one of them, as many as fifty-five people at a time in a single queue, calling out for those ahead to hurry, the elderly especially anxious and in genuine difficulty. It is not an easy thing to arrange, but anyone who does find the chance to make ghusl in ʿArafah itself, in fulfilment of this sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), should certainly take it.

The fourth occasion belongs to entering the state of iḥrām itself, before Ḥajj or ʿUmrah: ghusl is made first, and only then are the two white, unstitched garments put on — a woman wearing her ordinary clothing instead, rather than these two garments — after which two rakʿāt of ṣalāh are prayed, and the intention made, whether for Ḥajj or for ʿUmrah specifically. This ghusl, too, is sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), though beyond these four occasions there remain a good many further times when ghusl may be made, recommended rather than sunnah in the stricter sense.