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Hey, everything got REALLY heavy all of a sudden in terms of my academic life, and I haven't had time to make a post. I may not have one next week, or the week after either. :(

Back to Basics: Wuduu

"When a slave makes ablution and rinses his mouth, his wrong deeds fall from it. As he rinses his nose, his wrong deeds fall from it. When he washes his face, his wrong deeds fall from it, until they fall from beneath his eyelashes. When he washes his hands, his wrong deeds fall from them until they fall from beneath his finger-nails. When he wipes his head, his wrong deeds fall from it until they fall from his ears. When he washes his feet, his wrong deeds fall from them until they fall from beneath his toenails. Then his walking to the mosque and his prayer give him extra reward." -Prophet Muhammad SAW (via Abdullah ibn as-Sunnabiji, related by Malik, an-Nasai, Ibn Majah and Hakim)

Source: Fiqh Us-Sunnah

The Obligatory Parts of the Ablution

1) Intention to make Wuduu

Without it, you're just washing yourself.

2) Washing the Face

Face means everything from the top of the forehead to the bottom of the jaw, and from one ear to the other.

3) Washing the arms up to the elbow.

I've always understood this to mean everything from the wrist, up to and including the elbow. Fiqh does't say where the start is, but it says the elbows must be included.

4) Wiping the head

Means one of 3 things:

4a) Wiping all of the head (starting at the front, moving to the back)

Abdullah ibn Zaid reported that the Prophet (SAW) wiped his entire head with his hands. He started at the front of his head, then moved to the back, and then returned his hands to the front.

4b) Wiping over the turban only. Amru ibn Umayyah said "I saw the Messenger of Allah, upon whom be peace, wipe over his turban and shoes."

4c) Wiping over the front portion of the scalp and the turban. Al Mughirah ibn Shu'bah said that the Messenger of Allah, upon whom be peace, made ablution and wiped over the front portion of his scalp, his turban and his socks. (Related by Muslim)

Now, the author also says:

"There is however, no strong hadith that he wiped over part of his head, even through al-Ma'idah: 6 apparently implies it. It is also not sufficient just to wipe over locks of hair that proceed from the head or along the sides of the head."

I don't believe you need to soak your head in a bucket in order to meet these requirements, just wet your hands thoroughly, clasp your head like you've got a headache, and move your hands from back to front. 

5) Washing the feet and the heels. 

Wash everything up to and including the ankle, and your'e good.

And believe it or not, that's it. Those 5 parts are ALL you NEED to do for wuduu (don't believe me? Check the Quran 5:6.) 

6) Following the order. This is the way they've been mentioned in the Quran, this is the way the Prophet (SAW) did them, this is the way we do it. 

The Sunnah Parts of the Ablution

1) Mention the name of Allah at the beginning. 

No real concrete evidence for this, but we do it for everything else, so why not? Just..say it in your head if you're in your bathroom; have a little respect. :P

2) Dental Hygiene. 

For best results use a toothbrush, for additional points use a Miswak. No teeth? NO PROBLEM! Use your finger!  Aisha (RA) asked "O Messenger of Allah, how should a toothless person cleanse his mouth?" to which he replied "By putting his fingers into his mouth." (Related by at-Tabarani) Although I'm pretty sure you can buy some kind of gum-brush too.

3) Washing the hands 3 times at the beginning. 

Yes, you heard correct that's a sunnah! 

4) Rinsing the mouth 3 times.

Also a sunnah!  And THANK GOD for that, especially during Ramadan. If you're like me, you probably have some concerns putting stuff in your mouth when you're supposed to be fasting, especially water. You can do it, you're allowed to rinse your mouth for wuduu when fasting, but it still makes me nervous. Fortunately, we are not obliged to! 

5) Sniffing up and blowing out water 3 times.

Yup! This one's a sunnah too! Another blessing, especially during Ramadan. 

6) Running one's fingers through their beard.

A special sunnah for you beardy readers out there.

7) Running water through one's fingers and toes. 

This one's kind of confusing, since you have to wash your hands and feet anyway you'd kind of wonder why it is mentioned as a sunnah....no big deal though; I guess it just means actually "running" the water through them as opposed to simply wetting them, then rubbing with your hand. It's kind of hard NOT to do this one what with taps being the main source of water for wuduu nowadays.

8) Repeating each washing three times

It's also okay to do it once, or twice! But not more than 3: the Prophet (SAW) said "This is the ablution. Whoever does more than that has done wrong, transgressed and committed evil." (Related by Ahmad, an-Nasai and Ibn Majah)

9) Beginning each action with the right side

Same with anything else: always start from the right.

10) Rubbing the limbs with water

As opposed to simply submerging them, I guess... again, a difficult one NOT to do, unless you've got a GIGANTIC sink and 10 minutes to wait while it fills. Or the Ocean is your sink ;)

11) Close sequence.

Don't dawdle; get in, get wet, get out. Do each part, one after the other.

12) Wiping the ears.

This one is also a sunnah (my guess: it's, again, because of Ramadan; the ear has pathways to the throat through which water can be conducted). The sunnah is to wipe the interior of the ears with the index fingers and the exterior portions with the thumbs. Al-Miqdam ibn Mad Yakrib reported that the Prophet, upon whom be peace, wiped his head and his ears, the interior and exterior, while making ablution. He also put his fingers inside his ear. (Related by Abu Dawud and at-Tahawi)

13) Elongating the streaks of light

The parts washed during wuduu will be emitting light on the day of judgement, by "elongating the streaks of light" it is meant to wash a bit above the ankles, elbow, and forehead. Abu Hurairah (reports Abu Zar'ah) would wash his arms above the elbows, and his feet up to his calves. He was asked "Why do you do this?" and he replied "This is the extent of the embellishment." (Related by Ahmad).

14) Economizing the use of water, even if one is in front of the sea. 

Naturally this would make sense for desert dwellers, but it IS a sunnah, so we should do it too!

15) Supplication while performing ablution

Nothing concrete here, except one hadith from Abu Musa al-Ash'ari who said "I came to the Messenger of Allah with water. While he was performing ablution, I heard him supplicate, 'O Allah, forgive my sins. Make my residence spacious for me and bless me in my provisions.' I said, 'O Prophet of Allah, I heard you supplicating such and such.' He said, 'Did I leave anything out?'" (Related by an-Nasai and Ibn as-Sunni)

16) Supplication after ablution

A few of these around, check out the Dua apps and Fortification of the Muslim.

17) Praying two rak'ah after the ablution

pretty self explanatory.

And now you know! How much of what you do is actually a sunnah? :D

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I FINALLY added a recommend button! Not as easy as everyone made it out to be. -_-b

Missing Prayers

You'd think that with (at the very least) about an hour and a half to do it, you wouldn't be able to miss any prayers. 10 minute wuduu, 7 minute prayer (I take it slow and steady, sue me :P) that leaves you with, what?, nearly an hour and 15 minutes to a) find a sink, and b) find a place to pray, how hard can that be?


But, thanks to our good (HAH!) man (HAH!) Satan, the inevitable happens and we find ourselves missing our prayers. What does this mean? What do we do? Well, let's find out.


There are a few ways to find yourself with a missed prayer:


1) You slept through the prayer.


This is easy to deal with. You simply pray when you wake up:


In Fiqh Us-Sunna, Supererogatory Prayer, pg 99, we find the author quoting a hadith that says:


"There is no negligence while one is asleep but forgetfulness occurs when one is awake. If one of you forgets the prayer or sleeps through its time, then he should perform the salah when he recalls it." 


In a nutshell: sleep through the prayer? Pray it when you wake up.
Now you have to make an effort of course, it doesn't make much sense to say: go to bed without planning to wake up and pray, then just pray when you wake up. That's the same as intentionally missing a prayer because you are intending to sleep through it. 


2) You've forgotten the salah


You're still in the clear, it was an accident, accidents happen. The ruling is the same as for sleeping through it, just do the prayer when you remember.


Here's one issue though, you've lost your prayer by sleeping through it, or forgetting it, and it's now time for the next prayer. What do you do? Do you do the prayer you missed, or the current prayer?


On pages 100 to 101 of the Supererogatory Prayer book of Fiqh Us Sunnah, there's a great big messy rationalization that some guy (Ibn Hamza) went through to try and explain the sin of intentionally missing a prayer. Near the beginning, however, he says:


"Abu Hanifah, Malik, and Ash-Shafi'i say that he can make up the prayer after its time has expired, and Malik and Abu Hanifah even say that if a person intentionally misses a prayer or a few prayers, then he is to make up those prayers before he prays the present salah, even if he has missed all five prayers and should, while making them up, miss the present salah. They say that if he missed more than five prayers, he is to begin by praying the salah whose time is present (and then he is to make up the prayers he missed)."


Also, take a look at this link: http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Islamonline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503546664


this guy had the same question, and the Imam gave the same answer.

3) You fell unconscious and missed the prayer

This one's even EASIER. You don't even have to make it up! (Don't even think about it: INTENDING to make yourself fall unconscious to get out of prayer counts as intending to miss the prayer). This refers to the good old fashioned pass-out, due to hunger, heat, illness, whatever. One second your awake enjoying a good chat, next thing you know you're waking up with everyone standing over you with concerned faces. 

From Fiqh Us Sunnah, Supererogatory Prayer, page 99:

If one falls unconscious, then he need not repeat the salah, unless he regains his consciousness with enough time to purify himself and perform the salah within it's proper time.

Abdurrazzaq relates from Nafi' that Ibn Umar once fell sick and become unconscious and missed the prayer. When he regained his consciousness, he did not make up the missed prayer.

4) You delayed the prayer


The way I see it, there are only 2 prayers you can TRULY lose; Asr and Isha. You see, we are actually allowed to combine duhur with Asr, and Maghrib with Isha (according to Fiqh Us-Sunnah "Due to some pressing need"). If you're going to miss duhur, you can combine it with Asr, and if you're going to miss Mugharib, you can combine it with Isha, but if you're going to miss Asr or Isha, there's nothing to save you. 


Page 118 of Fiqh Us-Sunnah, Supererogatory Prayer:


Imam Muslim has said "The Messenger of Allah (SWT) combined the Zuhr and Asr and then the Maghrib and Isha in Madinah without there being any danger or rain." Ibn Abbas was asked: "What did he desire by that action?" He replied: "He did not want any hardship for his ummah."


There, now you don't  have any excuse!


Although every time I do this, I can't help but feel a LITTLE cheap....:S
But what happens if you do miss it. You've left your prayer, and now it's gone. Never coming back, and you can almost hear the devil cackling as he runs away. Well buddy, you're pretty much hooped: the majority of the scholars believe that it is a sin and the missed salah must be made up. MADE up, not repeated:


"By law, there is no way for one who leaves a salah intentionally to make its qadah. He may, however, resort to increasing his voluntary and supererogatory acts."- Ibn Taimiyyah


Ibn Hamza then says "Concerning one who leaves a salah intentionally until its time expires, he will never be able to make up for that salah. Such a person should turn to Allah and ask His forgiveness and increase his good deeds and nawafil in order to increase his weight (of good) on the Day of Resurrection." 


Then there's the quote I mentioned earlier about re-praying the lost prayers in order. But Ibn Hamza quotes the Quran saying "Woe unto the worshippers who are heedless of their prayers," (Quran 107:5) and "And then there succeeded them a later generation who wasted the prayers and followed their own lusts, but they will meet with destruction."(Quran 19:59). And said that if you can intentionally miss it and make it up, why will is it mentioned with affliction and transgression? And then it gets all complicated. SO......


My recommendation to you is to:
a) do the prayer you left (it can't hurt)
b) ask for God's Forgiveness
c) do good deeds to try and outweigh the sin
d) DON'T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN.