Chapter: The Obligatory Elements of Ablution and Its Manner

Its obligatory acts are six:

1. Washing the face, which includes rinsing the mouth and the nose;
2. Washing the hands;
3. Wiping the head—and the ears are considered part of it;
4. Washing the feet, as in the verse, “and your feet up to the ankles”;
5. Observing the prescribed order;
6. Maintaining continuity, meaning that one must not delay washing a limb until the previous one has dried.

Intention is a prerequisite for every purification from states of ritual impurity1: one must intend either to remove the impurity itself or to attain the purity required for acts that are not permissible without it.

If someone intends an act for which purification is merely recommended, such as Qur’an recitation or a sunnah renewal of ablution, while forgetting his state of impurity, the impurity is nonetheless removed.

If he performs a recommended bath, it suffices in place of an obligatory bath—and the reverse is also true. Should multiple causes requiring either ablution or a full bath coincide, then intending to remove any one of them lifts them all.