The Farḍ Components of Ghusl

Ghusl itself is simple. According to the Ḥanafīs there are three farḍ components to it, though the other schools — the Shāfiʿī school among them — count them somewhat differently. What every school agrees upon is the first and central one, that the whole body is drenched completely in water, so thoroughly that not a single hair on it, not a single spot, is left undry — not one part left merely damp where the rest is soaked; the whole body, absolutely wet, without exception.

The Ḥanafīs add two further components that the Shāfiʿī school does not recognise in the same way. They count the inside of the mouth and the inside of the nostrils as part of the body that must be washed in ghusl, where Imam al-Shāfiʿī does not regard either the inside of the mouth or the inside of the nostrils as part of the outer body at all. In the Ḥanafī school, then, water must thoroughly reach into the mouth, gargling right through the throat, and the mouth must be washed out — once. The same is done with the nostrils: water is drawn up into them and expelled again — once more. These two acts carry their own technical terms, maḍmaḍah for the mouth and istinshāq for the nostrils, two distinct things under two distinct names. But beyond either term, the single most important thing remains that the whole body, without exception, be drenched thoroughly in water.