Wounds, Rings, and What Need Not Be Removed

As already explained, where a genuine ailment makes contact with water harmful — a broken arm sitting in a cast, or a wound dressed with gauze or plaster — that part of the body is left untouched, according to what a doctor has advised: wiped over without wetting the hand in the process, touched only lightly, or left entirely alone, whichever the case requires. In this day and age, present-day waterproof dressings, reported to keep water out for as long as forty-eight hours regardless of what happens, have made this considerably easier than it was in earlier times, when nothing of the kind existed and the difficulty was much greater. Where it is only a bandage rather than a genuine hazard, a couple of hours' wait — longer, and with particular care, where the wound is on the head — is generally enough before the covered part may safely be washed. Once the ailment is cured, however, it becomes wājib to go back and wash that part of the body properly; the ghusl as a whole is not repeated on account of it. This is a genuine exception to the rule that not a single spot may be left dry: the full drenching of the body is the rule for those in ordinary health, and a wound provides a valid excuse from it. Nor is it necessary to remove any ointment applied to a cut or a wound before ghusl; water may simply be allowed to run over it, if a doctor has permitted this.

Every ring must be removed, and likewise every earring or other stud, so that water reaches into the holes where the pin sits and beneath the band of the ring itself; where the fit is tight enough that water does not pass beneath it, leaving a dry spot there, the ghusl made is not accepted.