Wudu Steps: How to Make Wudu, the Dua After It, and What Breaks It

Wudu has four parts that all four Sunni schools hold to be obligatory: 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; Kuwaiti Encyclopedia of Islamic Jurisprudence, 43/332). The Prophet's ﷺ practice adds washing the hands, rinsing the mouth and nose, wiping the ears and washing each part three times. Below are the steps in order, the dua to say afterward with its sources, and what breaks wudu in each school.

Key takeaways

• Four acts are obligatory in every school: the face, the arms with the elbows, wiping the head, and the feet with the ankles. Washing each part once fulfils the obligation; three times is the Sunnah.
• Beyond the four agreed acts, the schools differ. Shafi'is and Hanbalis require washing the parts in order. Hanbalis, and Malikis in their well-known view, require no long pause between parts. The well-known Maliki view also requires rubbing each part, and Hanbalis require rinsing the mouth and nose.
• The obligatory wipe of the head is a quarter of it for Hanafis (the relied-upon view), the whole head for Malikis (the well-known view) and Hanbalis (the sound view), and any amount for Shafi'is.
• The dua after wudu is the testimony of faith from Sahih Muslim 234. The extra line Allahumma-j'alni minat-tawwabin comes from a narration in al-Tirmidhi whose grade is disputed: da'if per Darussalam, sahih per al-Albani.
• Urine, stool, wind and losing consciousness break wudu in every school. Whether bleeding, vomiting, touching the opposite sex or touching your private parts breaks it depends on your school.

How do you make wudu step by step?

Steps 3–8 and 10 follow two Companions' descriptions of the Prophet's ﷺ wudu: Uthman ibn Affan's (Sahih al-Bukhari 159, Sahih Muslim 226a) and Abdullah ibn Zayd's (Sahih al-Bukhari 185). Steps marked Fard are obligatory in all four schools. The status of the others is covered in the next section.

1. Intention. Intend in your heart that this washing is wudu.
2. Bismillah. Say "Bismillah" as you begin.
3. Hands. Wash both hands three times.
4. Mouth. Take water in your right hand and rinse your mouth, three times.
5. Nose. Draw water into your nose and blow it out, three times.
6. Face (Fard). Wash your whole face three times.
7. Arms (Fard). Wash your right arm up to and including the elbow three times, then your left arm the same way.
8. Head (Fard). With wet hands, wipe your head: start at the front, pass your hands back to the nape of the neck, then bring them forward again to where you began.
9. Ears. Wipe your ears, inside and outside (Jami' al-Tirmidhi 36, graded sahih).
10. Feet (Fard). Wash your right foot up to and including the ankle three times, then your left foot.

Once is enough to fulfil the obligation. The Prophet ﷺ sometimes washed each part only once (Sahih al-Bukhari 157), and the schools agree that washing the whole face once is fard (Kuwaiti Encyclopedia, 43/332). Uthman's report ends with a promise: whoever makes wudu this way and then prays two rak'ahs without letting his mind wander has his past sins forgiven (Bukhari 159). If you are learning wudu and salah without anyone at home to show you, see building a first salah routine on your own.

Muslim App, a prayer times, Quran and duas app for iOS and Android, has an Islamic Guide that covers "Wudu, ghusl, and how to pray, with step-by-step visual instructions".

Is wudu different for women?

No. Women follow the same steps, including wiping the head (how much to wipe is covered below). One condition matters in practice. In all four schools, wudu is valid only if nothing on the skin keeps water from reaching it; the Kuwaiti Encyclopedia gives wax, grease, dough and mud as examples (43/329). Ordinary nail polish forms such a layer, so it has to come off before wudu (islamqa.info, answer 202971).

Which parts of wudu are fard and which are sunnah in each madhhab?

Beyond the four agreed acts, the Kuwaiti Encyclopedia names four points the schools dispute: intention, continuity, order and rubbing (43/332). On intention, the majority (al-jumhur) hold that wudu is not valid without it (43/354). The other points, with two more where the Hanbali school stands apart, are in the table.

Act	Required in	Sunnah in
Order (tartib): washing the parts in the sequence of Quran 5:6	Shafi'i, Hanbali	Hanafi, Maliki (well-known view)
Continuity (muwalat): no long pause between parts	Maliki (well-known view), Hanbali	Hanafi, Shafi'i (al-Shafi'i's later view)
Rubbing (dalk): passing the hand over each part as you wash	Maliki (well-known view)	Hanafi, Shafi'i, Hanbali
Rinsing the mouth and nose	Hanbali	Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i (together, al-jumhur)
Saying Bismillah	Hanbali (when remembered; forgetting is excused)	Hanafi, Shafi'i; recommended in the well-known Maliki view

Sources, all in the Kuwaiti Encyclopedia: order, 43/356; continuity, 43/355; rubbing, 43/357; mouth and nose, 43/360; Bismillah, 43/358 and 8/89.

How much of the head to wipe

• Hanafi: a quarter of the head, the relied-upon view of the school (43/348).
• Maliki: the whole head, from the hairline to the nape, in the well-known view (43/348).
• Shafi'i: any amount that counts as wiping, even part of a single hair, provided that hair would not reach beyond the head if pulled down (43/349).
• Hanbali: the whole head, in the sound view of the school (43/348).

The head is wiped once in the Hanafi, Maliki and Hanbali schools; the Shafi'i school makes three wipes a sunnah (43/351). Hanafis also recommend wiping the back of the neck with the backs of the hands, and this is one narration in the Hanbali school (43/372).

What is the dua after wudu?

The testimony of faith (Sahih Muslim 234)

Uqba ibn Amir heard Umar ibn al-Khattab relate that the Prophet ﷺ said: whoever makes wudu and does it well, then bears witness to the faith, has the eight gates of Paradise opened for him, to enter by whichever he wishes (Sahih Muslim 234a). Another chain of the same hadith adds wahdahu la sharika lah ("alone, with no partner"). That fuller wording is given here.

أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لاَ شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ

Transliteration: Ashhadu an la ilaha illallahu wahdahu la sharika lah, wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan 'abduhu wa rasuluh.

Translation: I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger.

Sahih Muslim 234b

The dua is not one of the acts that make wudu valid. The Shafi'i and Hanbali texts call it sunnah and describe saying it facing the qibla, raising the hands and the gaze to the sky (Kuwaiti Encyclopedia, 43/375). The narration that mentions raising the eyes to the sky is graded da'if by al-Albani (Sunan Abi Dawud 170).

The added line in al-Tirmidhi

A longer version of the hadith adds a second line after the testimony. It is in Jami' al-Tirmidhi 55.

اللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْنِي مِنَ التَّوَّابِينَ وَاجْعَلْنِي مِنَ الْمُتَطَهِّرِينَ

Transliteration: Allahumma-j'alni minat-tawwabina waj'alni minal-mutatahhirin.

Translation: O Allah, make me one of those who turn to You in repentance, and make me one of those who purify themselves.

Jami' al-Tirmidhi 55

Its grade is disputed. Al-Tirmidhi himself says the chain is inconsistent (mudtarib) and that very little on this subject is authentic from the Prophet ﷺ, and he quotes al-Bukhari ("qala Muhammad") that Abu Idris did not hear from Umar. Sunnah.com shows the hadith as da'if (Darussalam). Al-Albani, however, graded it sahih (Sahih al-Tirmidhi 55). Its meaning echoes the Quran, which says that Allah loves those who turn to Him in repentance and loves those who purify themselves (Quran 2:222).

Duas for each limb

Some books give a separate dua for each part of the body as you wash it. The Hanafi and Maliki schools, most Shafi'is and some Hanbalis count these as recommended (Kuwaiti Encyclopedia, 43/374). Their argument is that the reports come through several chains that strengthen one another, which Ibn Abidin held raises them to hasan, and that a weak hadith may be acted on for virtuous deeds if its weakness is not severe (43/375). Al-Nawawi, a Shafi'i, said the limb duas have no basis; Ibn al-Qayyim said they have no basis from the Prophet ﷺ; and the sounder Hanbali view is that they are not recommended, with Hanbali texts calling them disliked (makruh) in the sense of leaving what is better (43/375). The testimony in Sahih Muslim 234 is the dua after wudu whose authenticity no one disputes.

What breaks wudu?

What breaks wudu in every school

Anything that leaves the body through the front or back passage, such as urine, stool and wind, breaks wudu in all four schools, setting aside some finer details (Quran 5:6; Kuwaiti Encyclopedia, 43/386). The Prophet ﷺ said that the prayer of someone whose wudu is broken is not accepted until he makes wudu again, and when a man asked Abu Hurayrah what breaks it, he gave passing wind as the example (Sahih al-Bukhari 135). Losing your reason through fainting, intoxication or insanity breaks wudu by general agreement of the schools, and so does sleep, though each school defines which sleep (17/114).

Where the madhhabs differ

The Hanafi and Shafi'i schools differ on every row below. The Maliki and Hanbali positions follow the table.

What	Hanafi	Shafi'i
Bleeding	Breaks wudu if blood or pus flows onto a part of the body washed in wudu or ghusl, even where washing it is only recommended	Does not break wudu
Vomiting	Breaks wudu if it fills the mouth	Does not break wudu
Touching the opposite sex	Does not break wudu	Skin-to-skin contact between a man and a woman old enough to be desired who are not mahram (the more correct view on mahrams) breaks it, even without desire; contact through a barrier does not
Touching your private parts	Does not break wudu (17/119), based on Tirmidhi 85 (sahih, Darussalam)	Breaks it if done with the palm, with nothing in between (17/119), based on Tirmidhi 82 (sahih, Darussalam)
Sleep	Breaks it if lying down, reclining, or leaning on something so that you would fall if it were removed; not when standing, sitting, bowing or prostrating	Breaks it unless you sleep seated firmly on the ground

Sources, all in the Kuwaiti Encyclopedia: bleeding and vomiting, 17/113, 17/114 and 43/386; touching, 17/117 and 17/118; sleep, 17/115.

• Maliki: bleeding and vomiting do not break wudu (43/386). Touching breaks it when pleasure is intended or felt, and a kiss on the mouth breaks it in any case (17/117). A man touching his own private part with the palm or fingers breaks it, with or without desire (17/118). Only deep sleep breaks wudu, however short; light sleep does not, however long (17/115).
• Hanbali: bleeding and vomiting break wudu if the amount is large (17/113). Touching breaks it when it is skin to skin and with desire (17/117). On touching the private part, the Kuwaiti Encyclopedia records two narrations from Imam Ahmad: in one, touching it with the palm or the back of the hand breaks wudu, with or without desire; in the other, it does not (17/119). Sleep lying down breaks wudu however brief; sleep sitting breaks it if long (17/115). Eating camel meat also breaks wudu in the Hanbali school, based on Sahih Muslim 360a; the Hanafi, Maliki and Shafi'i schools hold that it does not, though it is one of al-Shafi'i's two opinions (17/121).

Making wudu at work, and wiping over leather socks

If washing your feet at a workplace sink is not practical, you can wipe over leather socks (khuffs), provided you put them on after a complete wudu (Sahih al-Bukhari 206): the Prophet ﷺ set the limit at a day and a night for a resident and three days and nights for a traveler (Sahih Muslim 276a). For finding a place to wash and pray during the day, see praying at work and school. One wudu lasts until one of the things listed above breaks it, so you can plan it around the day's prayer times for your city.