As for the Shia...

As for the Shia, they agreed unanimously upon that washing the head would never suffice for wudu’ because it was opposite to what Allah had ordered and opposite to the Prophet’s Sunna. The Prophet (s) used to wipe his forelock in wudu’ and he didn’t wash his head. Hence washing the head in wudu’ was null and it would invalidate wudu’ too. You already knew that we said previously that washing and wiping were two different facts.

Order in performing wudu’ The Shia agreed unanimously, according to their pure imams, upon the obligation of the order of the acts of wudu’ as they were arranged by the Quranic verse of wudu’.[^3] The Malikites, the Hanafites, Sufyan ath-Thawri and Dawood thought that the order of the acts of wudu’ was not necessary. They considered it as mustahab and said that wudu’ wouldn’t be invalidated if the order of its acts was violated.

They said that wudu’ would be valid if one began his wudu’ by washing his left foot and ended his wudu’ by washing his face although his acts were opposite to the order of wudu’ mentioned in the Quranic verse. The Shia’s evidence was the Quran and the Sunna. The Quranic verse showed the order of the acts of wudu’ clearly. The Sunna confirmed that the Prophet (s) kept to the order of the acts of wudu’ whether his wudu’ was for a wajib prayer or a mustahab prayer. He was pure along his life.

Whenever his wudu’ was invalidated, he performed it. He often perform wudu’ although he was pure by the previous wudu’. He often said: “It is a light on alight.” The umma agreed upon that the Prophet (s) had never performed wudu’ unless he followed the order of its acts.

If the order of wudu’ was not a condition for wudu’ to be valid, the Prophet (s) would break it even one time or he would declare that it was permissible to break the order of the acts of wudu’ to show the right verdict as he used to do whenever there was a religious verdict. Since the Prophet (s) didn’t break the order of wudu’ and didn’t declare that it was permissible to break it, so we knew definitely that the base was to follow the order of wudu’ as a condition for wudu’ to be valid.

Succession of acts of wudu’ The Shia ulema, according to their imams, thought that the succession[^4] of the acts of wudu’ was a necessary condition for the validity of wudu’. The previous organ, which was to be washed, must not dry before finishing washing the following organ when the environments were normal.