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Ritual Purity and Ablution while taking a shower

Answered as per Hanafi Fiqh by Qibla.com

Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

If you take a bath or shower without making niyah for Ghusl or wudu (when not in a state of ritual impurity) but just simply to wash the body, is making a fresh wudu necessary for Salat or recitation of the Quran etc. or is the bath sufficient? (as long as the the parts of the body that need to be washed in wudu have been). If it is sufficient then would you have to wash the required parts thrice?

Answer:
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Wa Alaykum Assalam wa Rahmatullah wa Barakatuhu,

In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful & Compassionate

1. Intention is not a condition for the validity of one’s acts of ritual purification (whether ablution or the ritual bath). It is, however, a sunna (and a condition for reward, as there is no reward without intention).

2. Thus, a full bath or shower would also render one in a state of ritual purity.

3. Washing the limbs three times is a sunna—and thus blameworthy to leave—but isn’t a condition for the validity of one’s bath or ablution.

Faraz Rabbani

From a previous question answered by Sidi Fadi Qutub Zada:

It is enough to have a shower instead of a ‘full bath’ or ablution (wudu) while fulfilling several conditions.

** If having a shower in place of a purificatory bath (ghusl), one must fulfill the three obligatory actions:

Taking water into (1) the nose and (2) the mouth once, (3) And washing the entire body once. (One must wash everything that is possible to wash without hardship, such as the ears, belly button, mustache, eyebrows, inside the beard, and the hair. Women should move their earrings so that water reaches the pierced area) [Ilm al-Hal 11, Faraz Rabbani’s translation].

** If having a shower in place of a wudu,

One must wash the face, arms up to the elbows, and feet up to the anklebones, completely with water, and must wipe a quarter of the head once [Nur al-Idah 1:97-99].

One should not, however, leave the confirmed sunna actions in both the ghusl and wudu. Leaving them is somewhat disliked (makruh tanzihan), and becomes sinful if made a habit.

Wassalam,

Sunni Path Fiqh Team

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