the very cornerstone of psychological therapy, and this awakening is generated through centres embedded in the depths of their innate disposition and the very roots of their souls.
Minor purification, therefore, is limited to washing those extremities that customarily remain uncovered and protrude from one’s clothing. Because dirt quickly clings to them, people are accustomed to cleaning these parts when performing refined tasks, when entering the presence of dignitaries, or when greeting one another.
Furthermore, washing these four parts rouses a person from sleep and sloth.
Shaykh al-Islam said: “The Sunnah instructs us to avoid physical impurities and to purify ourselves of them, and it likewise commands us to avoid spiritual impurities and purify ourselves of them.” The Messenger of Allah said, “When any one of you wakes up from sleep, let him blow water out of his nose three times, for Satan spends the night on his nostrils.” He also said, “When any one of you rises from night-sleep, he must not immerse his hand in a vessel until he has washed it three times, for he does not know where his hand spent the night.” The Prophet linked the order to rinse the nose to Satan’s lodging upon it, showing that the purpose of this purification is other than the removal of visible filth.
Wuḍūʾ is among the most important prerequisites for prayer. Al-Bukhārī and Muslim relate from Abu Hurayrah, traced back to the Prophet: “Allah does not accept the prayer of any one of you when he breaks wind until he performs wuḍūʾ.” Muslim also reports, “Wuḍūʾ is half of faith.” Its obligation was revealed from heaven in His words: “O you who believe, when you rise for prayer, wash your faces and your hands…” (5:6).
The scholars have differed over whether it was prescribed in Mecca or in Medina, but the stronger view is that it was legislated in Medina, since no decisive text supports the contrary.
Shaykh al-Islam further said: “Wuḍūʾ is a distinctive feature of this ummah, as the authentic traditions state: ‘They will be raised on the Day of Resurrection radiant and with limbs gleaming from the traces of ablution,’ and the Prophet will recognise his community by this mark, which no other nation will share.” As for the report recorded by Ibn Mājah that Gabriel taught the Prophet wuḍūʾ—upon which Aḥmad adds, “This is my wuḍūʾ and the wuḍūʾ of the prophets before me”—it is weak and cannot serve as proof.