The makrûhs of the ablution
Question: What are the makrûhs [acts that are improper, disliked or abstained by the Prophet “alaihissalâm”] of the ablution?
ANSWER
They are:
1- To stretch your feet towards the qibla when washing them.
2- To open your awrat parts [parts on one’s body which one must not open or show others and it is forbidden for others to see outside or during namâz] when performing ablution.
3- To use water extravagantly.
4- To use too little water so as to appear rubbing with oil.
5- To splash the water on your face.
6- To blow on or over the surface of the water.
7- To talk while making ablution.
8- To spit or blow one’s nose into the water or the basin where one makes an ablution.
9- To accidentally swallow water while gargling.
10- To close your eyes tightly or open them too wide.
11- To start from the left side.
12- To blow your nose with the right hand.
13- To put water in your mouth or nose with the left hand.
14- To perform an ablution with the water warmed under the sun.
15- To turn your back to the qibla.
16- To close the eyes tightly.
17- To open your eyes too wide.
18- Not to avoid the musta’mal [water used for the ghusl or ablution] water.
19- To talk about worldly issues.
20- To wash your limbs more or less than three times.
While performing ablution
Question: What are the things that are inappropriate to do while performing ablution?
ANSWER
Some of them are as follows:
1- When relieving oneself or urinating in the toilet or out-doors, one should not turn one’s front or back towards the qibla.
2- It is harâm [prohibited] to open one’s awrat parts near someone in order to make tahârat [cleaning private parts after urinating or defecating].
3- One should not make tahârat with one’s right hand.
4- When there is no water, it is makrûh [improper, disliked or abstained by the Prophet] to make tahârat with food products, manure, bones, animals’ food, coal, someone else’s property, a piece of flowerpot or tile, reeds, leaves, a piece of cloth or paper.
5- One should not wash one’s limbs of ablution much more or less than the prescribed limit, it is also makrûh to wash them more or less than three times.
6- One must not close one’s mouth and eyes tightly. If even a tiny part of the outward part of the lips or the eyelids is left dry, the ablution will not be acceptable.
7- One must not make masah [rub one’s wet hands] on one’s head, ears or neck more than once by moistening the hands each time. It can be repeated without moistening the hands again.
8- While performing ablution, you must not talk about worldly matters if there is no necessity.
Warning: Unless there is a strong necessity, the following rules must be obeyed:
1- A person with both hands paralysed (or no hands at all) cannot make tahârat. Instead he makes tayammum by rubbing his arms on some soil and his face against a wall. If there is a wound one his face, he performs the namâz without an ablution in order not to miss namâz.
2- If a person is sick, his wife, children, sisters, or brothers may help him perform his ablution.
3- Making tahârat with stones and the like is the same as making it with water.
4- If a person who went mad or fainted did not recover within twenty-four hours, he would not have to perform (qadâ) his missed prayers of namâz when he recovered. He who loses consciousness by taking alcohol, opium or medicine must perform each omitted prayer. A person who is so heavily ill that he cannot even perform the namâz by moving his head while lying down, even if he is conscious, is exempted from performing namâz. However, this state must go on for more than twenty-four hours.
5- It is mustahab (a source of blessings) to use special pyjamas or clothes and to cover the head when entering the toilet.
6- When entering the toilet one must not hold something in one’s hand containing Allah’s name or pieces of writing from the Qur’ân. It must be wrapped up with something or it must be in one’s pocket. The case is the same with an amulet.
7- One must enter the toilet with one’s left foot and go out with one’s right foot.
8- In the toilet, one must not talk.
9- One must not look at one’s private parts or at the waste
material or spit in the toilet.
10- In the toilet, one must not eat or drink anything, sing, whistle, smoke or chew gum.
11- One must not urinate into any water, on a wall of a mosque, in a cemetery, or onto any road.
