Making Wuḍūʾ Properly

Wuḍūʾ itself should be made sitting at a raised place, where the water will not splash back onto the one making it, sleeves rolled up past the forearm. This is the manner for men, and for men in public specifically; in private a person may do as he likes, and a woman likewise in private may do as she likes. Suppose the excuse offered is that instruction had been given to make wuḍūʾ, and so — sleeves rolled up as a man's would be — it is done in some public place such as a McDonald's, in order to catch the time for prayer: this will not do for a woman. The arms are ʿawrah; they must be covered, not bared in front of everyone. Removing the hijab entirely in order to make wuḍūʾ in such a setting, with the whole restaurant watching, is no better — it amounts to a kind of theft, exposing in public what ought to stay covered. Wuḍūʾ, for a woman, has to be made in private; this too belongs to adab. What follows is described for men; where the case of women differs, it is mentioned.

Bismillāhi al-Raḥmāni al-Raḥīm opens the act, and the intention is made — sunnah in the Ḥanafī school, farḍ in the Shāfiʿī, where it must precede the washing of the face specifically; where the face is washed first and the intention only made afterwards, that wuḍūʾ, according to the Shāfiʿī school, is no wuḍūʾ at all, and must be started again from the beginning.

Where a miswāk is to hand it should be used — a sunnah all but abandoned today — and where neither miswāk nor toothbrush is available, the thumb and forefinger may be used instead, to rub the gums and the teeth at the very least, and try to clean them, after the practice of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). And let the rest of wuḍūʾ be made properly: when the feet are washed, khilāl is made between the toes, and the heels are washed thoroughly, rather than simply passed under the running water and called finished, finished — that is not washing at all. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) himself warned a person who washed in that careless way that this was not the way to wash. Wash properly. Wash properly. This is a matter that requires real care.