Step 5 of 12
Washing the Face
Wash your whole face three times. Its length runs from where the hair of the head normally begins down to the bottom of the chin, and its width from one ear to the other.
Make sure the water reaches every part, including the sides near the ears, the eyebrows and the area under the lower lip. If your beard is thin enough to see the skin through it, the water must reach the skin; if it is thick, wash its outer surface and run wet fingers through it.
Washing the face is the first obligation named in the verse of wudu, and all four schools agree on it.
The four schools differ on some details. Show them
Each school's ruling, with the schools that share it named together.
Is rubbing (dalk) the washed limbs obligatory, beyond letting water flow over them?
3 of 4 schools agree. Differing: Maliki.
Show each school
- SunnahHanafi · Shafi'i · Hanbali
- Obligatory (fard)Maliki
- Hanafi
- Washing is fulfilled once water flows over the limb; rubbing it is a sunnah.
- Maliki
- Rubbing each washed limb with the hand while it is wet is one of the obligations of wudu, since in their view that is what 'washing' means.
- Shafi'i
- Washing is fulfilled once water flows over the limb; rubbing it is a sunnah.
- Hanbali
- Washing is fulfilled once water flows over the limb; rubbing it is a sunnah.
- Qur'an 5:6
- Sahih al-Bukhari 164 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Sahih Muslim 226Sahih · in the two Sahihs
What the hadith grades mean
- Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
- Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
- Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
- Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
- Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
- The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
- Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
- Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.
The positions of the four schools are summarised from their standard references and are pending review by a qualified scholar. Follow the school you were taught, and for your own situation, ask a scholar.
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