42 – Abu Hurayrah — may Allah be pleased with him — reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “When you perform wuḍūʾ, start with your right sides.” It was recorded by the Four and declared sound by Ibn Khuzaymah. (1)

Hadith Grade
The report is ṣaḥīḥ. Ibn Daqiq al-ʿId remarked, “It is truly deserving of the status of authentic.” Al-Nawawī judged it ḥasan in al-Majmūʿ. It was also transmitted by Aḥmad (8438), Ibn Ḥibbān (3/370), al-Bayhaqī, and al-Ṭabarānī in al-Awsat (2/21). The preceding narration further corroborates it.

Vocabulary
• idhā – a particle that most often refers to the future and usually carries a conditional sense; its verb is commonly past in wording yet future in meaning, as in this ḥadith.
• tawaddaʾtum – “you intended to make wuḍūʾ,” or “you commenced it.”
• bi-mayāminikum – singular yamīn, the opposite of “left,” whether in reference to side or to limb.

Points Derived from the Ḥadith
1 – It is recommended to give precedence to the right in wuḍūʾ when washing the hands and the feet: one begins with the right hand, then the left, and with the right foot before the left. This is confirmed by the earlier report from ʿĀʾishah that the Prophet ﷺ “loved to start with the right in his footwear, in combing his hair, in purification, and in all of his affairs,” related by al-Bukhārī (168) and Muslim (268).
2 – Starting with the right applies to the hands and feet; it does not apply to the face, for the face is a single limb that is washed