Is the Ritual Bath an Act of Worship?

Answered by Ustadh Sufyan Qufi

Question

Is the ritual bath (ghusl) a type of worship, like ablution (wudu) or is it just a form of purification?

What I mean by ghusl is when you have ejaculated and are obliged to do ghusl, not any sunna – just ghusl.

Answer

In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,

I pray this finds you in the best of states.

Purification

The ritual bath (ghusl) and wudu are not in and of themselves acts of worship. Taken on their own, they are simply a way to wash your limbs (which has nothing to do with worshipping Allah) and a waste of water, (as you are using the property of someone else, namely Allah, without His consent which is something bad as you are now deserving Allah’s blame, the Creator and Owner of this water for doing so).

They obtain their status of being an act of worship through the fact that they have been made the key to the prayer by Allah, Most High.

Allah, Most High, says: “O believers! When you rise up for prayer, wash your faces and your hands up to the elbows, wipe your heads and wash your feet to the ankles. And if you are in a state of ˹full˺ impurity, then take a full bath.” [Quran, 5:6]

Performing a ritual bath or wudu in order to pray is indeed an act of worship and something good (i.e. something deserving of Allah’s praise) because you are
(1) following the order of your Creator and Owner, Allah, and
(2) you are enabling yourself to perform something good in and of itself, namely the prayer.

Prayer

As for the prayer, it is in and of itself something good (deserving Allah’s praise) and an act of worship because from its beginning to its end the prayer is about venerating our Lord through words and actions which is fulfilling Allah’s right on us to be worshipped and which is fulfilling Allah’s command to pray. [Usul as-Shashi; Laknawi, Ahsan al-Hawashi]

Reward

Please keep in mind that in order for you to be rewarded for your ghusl and wudu and for them to become an act of worship an intention to get closer to Allah is needed when performing them. [Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah]
And Allah knows best.

Wassalam
[Ustadh] Sufyan Qufi
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani