Chapter on Intention and on Separating Wuḍūʾ

No act of purification—whether wuḍūʾ (ablution), tayammum (dry ablution), or the ritual bath required for janābah (major impurity) or menstruation—is valid unless it is accompanied by the proper intention. Whoever performs wuḍūʾ merely to cool himself, bathes only to refresh himself, or is washed by another while forming no intention, his ablution is of no effect.

If, when making wuḍūʾ, a person intends it for a specific prayer, he may nevertheless use that same wuḍūʾ for any other prayer. Tayammum is not treated in this way; its ruling will be discussed in its proper chapter, God willing.

Wuḍūʾ performed for an obligatory prayer, a supererogatory prayer, the funeral prayer, or for touching the muṣḥaf is all the same, because wuḍūʾ removes ritual impurity and thereby renders permissible what was previously forbidden to one without it. Hence, when a person intends that general purpose, he may perform the prescribed prayer with that wuḍūʾ.

The principle established by Mālik and the majority of his companions is that anything which may not lawfully be done without wuḍūʾ—if one performs wuḍūʾ for it, that wuḍūʾ entitles him to offer every prayer, for the state of impurity has been lifted. Conversely, whatever may be done without wuḍūʾ may not be followed by any prayer—obligatory, supererogatory, or a funeral prayer—on the strength of the wuḍūʾ made for that act, unless the person expressly intends by that wuḍūʾ to remove impurity. This, in summary, is Mālik’s position.

A different report from him concerns the one who performs wuḍūʾ before sleeping or before entering upon the ruler, yet the sound view is what we have just stated. Likewise, in Mālik’s school, the Friday bath does not fulfil the requirement of the bath for major impurity. Some of his companions nevertheless permitted