How to Make Wudu - Step by Step with Common Mistakes

Wudu (ablution) is the washing required before prayer and before touching or reciting from the mushaf. This guide gives the fard acts from the Quran, the sunnah steps, what breaks wudu, and the points where schools differ, following Hanafi practice.

The Quran specifies four fard acts of wudu: washing the face, washing the arms up to and including the elbows, wiping the head, and washing the feet up to and including the ankles (Quran 5:6). Everything else is sunnah or recommended.

"O you who have believed, when you rise to [perform] prayer, wash your faces and your forearms to the elbows and wipe over your heads and wash your feet to the ankles" (Quran 5:6).

• Face: from the hairline to the chin, and from ear to ear.
• Arms: including the elbows.
• Head: wiping a portion. The Hanafi school requires about a quarter of the head. Other schools differ, with the Maliki and Hanbali views requiring the whole head or most of it.
• Feet: including the ankles.

1. Intention in the heart that you are making wudu.
2. Say "Bismillah."
3. Wash both hands up to the wrists three times.
4. Rinse the mouth three times.
5. Rinse the nose by sniffing water in and blowing it out, three times.
6. Wash the face three times.
7. Wash the right arm to the elbow three times, then the left.
8. Wipe the head once, and the ears.
9. Wash the right foot to the ankle three times, then the left, passing the fingers between the toes.
10. Dua after wudu: "Ash-hadu an la ilaha illallahu wahdahu la sharika lahu wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan 'abduhu wa rasuluh." Muslim records the reward of the doors of Paradise being opened for the one who says this after a complete wudu.

Washing three times is the sunnah and once is the minimum. Be moderate with water: the Prophet ﷺ used to make wudu with about a mudd, a small measure (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim).

• Anything that exits the front or back passage, such as urine, stool, or wind.
• Flowing blood or pus that leaves the place it came from.
• Vomiting a mouthful.
• Sleeping lying down, or leaning in a way that the body is relaxed.
• Losing consciousness, fainting or intoxication.
• Laughing loudly in a prayer with ruku and sajdah.

Other schools differ on some of these. For example, the Shafi'i school counts touching the private part and, in some conditions, touching a person of the opposite sex, and does not count the flowing blood. If a ruling matters to you, ask a scholar.

Wiping over leather socks (khuffain) instead of washing the feet is established in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim: one day and night for a resident, three days and nights for a traveller, provided the socks were put on in wudu. Details of what counts as khuffain differ.

• Not washing the heels fully. The Prophet ﷺ said, "Woe to the heels from the Fire" (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim).
• Wasting water.
• Leaving a dry patch under a ring, nail polish or a waterproof coat. Nail polish that stops water reaching the nail prevents valid wudu.