What are the Requirements of an Obligatory Purificatory Bath?

Answered by Shaykh Irshaad Sedick

Question

Is it mandatory to reach water to the inner part of the nose (the inner part which can be seen) during the purificatory bath? Is the ghusl valid if we do not allow the water to reach the inner part?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate. May Allah guide every dimension of our lives to that which pleases Him.

Minimum Purificatory Bath Requirements

Only two things are obligatory for the validity of the purificatory bath in the Shafi’i School:

1. having the intention (when water is first applied to the body).
2. the water must reach all the hair and skin (to the roots of the hair, under nails, and the outwardly visible portion of the ear canals), even under the foreskin of the uncircumcised man, and the private parts of the nonvirgin woman which are normally disclosed when she squats to relieve herself.

Rinsing the mouth and nose is not a requirement, according to the official Shafi’i view.

[Nawawi, Minhaj Al-Talibin] 

Prudent Practice

In the Hanafi School, rinsing out the mouth and nostrils is obligatory for the validity of the purificatory bath [Al-Lubab fi Sharh Al-Kitab]

It is religiously more prudent for a Muslim never to omit it, and Allah knows best. [Keller, Umdat Al-Salik]

I pray this is of benefit and that Allah guides us all.

[Shaykh] Irshaad Sedick
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Irshaad Sedick was raised in South Africa in a traditional Muslim family. He graduated from Dar al-Ulum al-Arabiyyah al-Islamiyyah in Strand, Western Cape, under the guidance of the late world-renowned scholar, Shaykh Taha Karaan. 

Shaykh Irshaad received Ijaza from many luminaries of the Islamic world, including Shaykh Taha Karaan, Mawlana Yusuf Karaan, and Mawlana Abdul Hafeez Makki, among others.

He is the author of the text “The Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal: A Hujjah or not?” He has served as the Director of the Discover Islam Centre and Al Jeem Foundation. For the last five years till present, he has served as the Khatib of Masjid Ar-Rashideen, Mowbray, Cape Town.

Shaykh Irshaad has thirteen years of teaching experience at some of the leading Islamic institutes in Cape Town). He is currently building an Islamic online learning and media platform called ‘Isnad Academy’ and pursuing his Master’s degree in the study of Islam at the University of Johannesburg. He has a keen interest in healthy living and fitness.