Your Wudu Will Never Be the Same Again
Children (and adults!) here are some amazing things about wudu, which will change the way you think of wudu forever!
When we make wudu, it’s usually rushed and not so perfect. We do a quick, messy splash around, sometimes getting water everywhere except where it’s supposed to go!
What’s more, we don’t actually think of it as a special thing. We think we are doing it to get to the special thing, which is salah or holding the Quran to read. So we get it out of the way and we think the closeness to Allah begins when we start our salah.
But no! Making wudu is just as special! Let me tell you seven special reasons why…
Do you want the prophet (saw) to recognise you? One extremely beautiful thing about wudu, that I will always think of when making wudu is that our beloved prophet (saw) will recognise us on the day of judgement only through the effects of wudu. Because making wudu will make our faces and limbs shine bright on that day, like a decoration, making us look beautiful, and the prophet (saw) will be able to see clearly the people from his ummah. There are many hadiths that speak of this.
Our prophet (saw) said that when you make wudu and you do it perfectly, and then you make the dua below, then the 8 gates of Jannah open for you and he can go through whichever one he wishes. Isn’t that just amazing? Just by doing one perfect wudu and the dua, the doors of heaven open to welcome you! subhanAllah!
Ashhadu an la ilaha ill-allah wahdahu la sharika lah, wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan ‘abduhu wa rasuluhu. allahumm aj’alni min al-tawwabina waj’alni min al-mutatahhirin
Wudu is where you smaller sins actually get cleansed away. One hadith tells us, when you’re washing your hands, the bad things that your hands might have done, get washed away. And as you rinse your mouth, the bad deeds of your tongue get washed away (something rude you might have said), and as you wash your face, the bad thing you saw or heard get washed away, and as you carry on, to your arms and elbows and feet and ankles, ALL the little bad things get washed away and you and it’s as if you are a new born baby! Did you realise that? That every time you make wudu, if you do it perfectly, you have the chance of getting rid of the mistakes you might have made? So next time you make wudu, just imagine/visualise the sins falling off, just like germs do.
Musnad Aḥmad 21680
Wudu is half of faith/iman. So, half of your iman is relies on wudu/ghusl. This hadith is usually translated as ‘half of faith is cleanliness.’ Which is correct. Scholars say a better translation is that half of faith is wudu and one version of the hadith says that perfecting wudu is half of faith (Muslim) (Sunan An-Nasa’i).
Our prophet (saw) encouraged us to do wudu throughout the day. And he said that the only reason he didn’t ask us to do if before every salah, is because we would find it difficult.
We all know how exciting it is when we have kept our wudu and don’t need to do it again for the next salah! Or how hard we think sometimes, to remember whether we have our wudu so we don’t have to do it again. But this tells us that the prophet (saw) is saying, even if you have it, go ahead and do it again, because it is a blessing from Allah for you.
In a hadith, the prophet (saw) tells us that the Mu’min, which is someone at a higher level of belief, will always want to protect their wudu. This means, they will always want to have wudu. If it breaks, they will make wudu again. Not because they are about to pray, but just to be in a state of purity. We all know that having wudu makes us feel different somehow and we regret it when it breaks. Sometimes that’s just because we feel lazy to do it again for the next salah, but if you’re feeling like you just want to have your wudu all the time, that’s a really special sign.
(Majah 1:1:277)
And imagine that when the angels had a discussion, they talked about how great wudu is. The angels were debating which deeds bring us closer to Allah. And wudu was in the top three deeds! Especially when it’s hard to do wudu, like when it’s freezing outside and we don’t want to take our warm cosy socks off!
With abundant duas for Shaykh Yasir Qadhi, who conveyed all of this through a khutbah. All references and the khutbah transcript can be found here.
Check out these books to learn more about wudu!
For how to make wudu, and what breaks it, refer to How to Pray
For a section on wudu, check out Migo & Ali: A-Z of Islam, Islamic encyclopedia
