Ablution (Wudhu) before Prayer

"O believers! when you stand for prayer wash your face and hands to the elbows, wipe your head and wash your feet to the ankles”

(Qur'an: 5:6)

Hadith:

Allah's Messenger said, The key to Paradise is prayer, and the key to prayer is cleanliness (Ablution).

How to perform Ablution:

1.First, make the Niyyah (intention) in your heart that this act of Wudu is for the purpose of preparing for Salah, and say: "Bismillah" (in the name of Allah).

2.Wash both hands up to the wrists (starting with the right hand) three times, making sure that water has reached between the fingers.

3.Take water with your right hand, put it into your mouth and rinse thoroughly three times.

4.Take water with your right hand, splash it into your nose and blow it out three times. (Use the left hand if necessary to help blow it out).

5.Wash your whole face three times repeatedly. (The whole face includes: the right ear to the left ear, and the forehead to the bottom of the chin).

6.Wash the right arm thoroughly from wrist to elbow three times, and make sure that no part of the arm has been left unwashed.  Repeat with the left arm.

7.Move the palms of the wet hands lightly over the head, starting from the top of the forehead to the back of the head, and passing both hands over the back of the head to the neck, and then bringing them back to the forehead.

8.With the same water, rub the grooves and holes of both ears with the wet index fingers, while also passing the wet thumbs behind the ears from the bottom upward.

9.Finally, wash both feet to the ankles three times, starting with the right foot.  Make sure that water has reached between the toes and covered the rest of the foot.

Hadith:

Allah's Messenger (pbuh) saying, 'If a man performs ablution perfectly and then offers the compulsory congregational prayer, Allah will forgive his sins committed between that (prayer) and the (next) prayer till he offers it.' "

Things that will break the Wudu:

1.Natural discharges: urine, stool, gas, etc.

2.Falling asleep.

3.Unconsciousness of any kind.

Hadith:

My uncle asked Allah's Messenger (pbuh) about a person who imagined to have passed wind during the prayer. Allah' Apostle replied: "He should not leave his prayers unless he hears sound or smells something."