Can We Recite Dua While Performing a Ritual Bath (Ghusl)?

Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Question

I have noticed that women in south-east Asia, not all but some, say dua while doing ghusl. While performing the ghusl, they recite dua and blow on water. Pour it on their head three times. Especially for ghusl of menses. Is this true?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Merciful and Compassionate.

I hope you’re doing well, insha’Allah.

This isn’t a practice that is specifically sunna, nor generally recommended in the main texts of the Hanafi school.

Engaging in remembrance (dhikr) and supplication (dua) during one’s wudu is recommended. [Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah, others]

This would be good in ghusl, but only if

• one is covered in a dignified way; and
• making ghusl in a clean place.

As for localized practices: please consult learned scholars from those traditions, as there may be considerations we’re unaware of.

And Allah is the giver of success and facilitation.
[Shaykh] Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Faraz Rabbani spent ten years studying with some of the leading scholars of recent times, first in Damascus and then in Amman, Jordan. His teachers include the foremost theologian of recent times in Damascus, the late Shaykh Adib al-Kallas (may Allah have mercy on him), and his student Shaykh Hassan al-Hindi, one of the leading Hanafi fuqaha of the present age. He returned to Canada in 2007, where he founded SeekersGuidance to meet the urgent need to spread Islamic knowledge–both online and on the ground–in a reliable, relevant, inspiring, and accessible manner. He is the author of “Absolute Essentials of Islam: Faith, Prayer, and the Path of Salvation According to the Hanafi School (White Thread Press, 2004).” Since 2011, the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center has named Shaykh Faraz one of the 500 most influential Muslims.