Step 7 of 12
Wiping the Head
Wet your hands and wipe over your head once. The way 'Abdullah ibn Zayd described it: place your hands at the front of the head, pass them back to the nape of the neck, then bring them back to where you began.
The head is wiped, not washed, and once is enough. You wipe over the hair; there is no need to wet it through. A woman may wipe over her hair as it is without undoing it.
Wiping the head is an obligation by agreement. The schools differ on how much of the head must be wiped.
The four schools differ on some details. Show them
Each school's ruling, with the schools that share it named together.
How much of the head must be wiped?
2 of 4 schools agree. Differing: Hanafi, Shafi'i.
Show each school
- A quarter of the headHanafi
- The whole headMaliki · Hanbali
- Any part of the headShafi'i
- Hanafi
- The obligation is met by wiping a quarter of the head, the amount of the forelock the Prophet ﷺ wiped; wiping the whole head is the sunnah.
- Maliki
- The whole head must be wiped, following the description of 'Abdullah ibn Zayd.
- Shafi'i
- Wiping any part, even a few hairs within the area of the head, fulfils the obligation; wiping the whole head is the sunnah.
- Hanbali
- The whole head must be wiped in the relied-upon view of the school, following the description of 'Abdullah ibn Zayd.
- Qur'an 5:6
- Sahih al-Bukhari 185 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Sahih Muslim 274Sahih · 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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