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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Jurisprudence Made Easy Dialogue on Ghusl I do not divulge a secret if I said that I love water. It is a subject close to my heart for it reminds me of happy memories. When I was a child, I used to play with my mother, spraying her with water. I did the same thing with my play mates. And since I know that water is a source for personal hygiene as well as for physical cleaning, this particular dialogue earned added importance.

My father said to me that ghusl is of two kinds: the first is by submerging the whole body in water, and the second is done sequentially. * How do you go about the first type? - It is done by submerging the whole body in water at one go, i.e. from the summit of the head to the tips of the toes. * And the sequential one? - You should first wash your head, ears and neck.

The second in the order of washing must be the right hand side including the part of the neck that is connected to it and the adjoining area of the left hand side. The third in the order of washing must be the left hand side, in exactly the same manner. However, it is permissible to wash the whole of the body at one go, i.e. without dividing it into two parts, after you have washed your head and neck. * Are there any conditions that should be observed when ghusl is carried out?

All the conditions that are required for wudhu apply to ghusl, such as niyyah, the cleanliness and abundance of water, the order of parts of the body to be washed, etc. (please refer to Dialogue on Wudhu). However, ghusl is different from wudhu in two ways. * What are they? - They are: 1. It is not necessary to start washing the parts of the body from top to bottom, as is the case in wudhu. 2. In ghusl, you do not need to observe the unbroken chain of washing, i.e.

from start to finish without stopping. For example, you may wash your head and neck, then the rest of your body after a while, so much so that this may result in the parts that were washed becoming dry. You cannot do this when performing wudhu. There is an added bonus for ghusl of janabah, in that it makes up for wudhu. * And what else can it compensate for? - It can also make up for ghusl of Juma. That is you either make one niyyah, exclusive for ghusl of janabah, or you make niyyah for both.

[Indeed, as far as ghusl of Juma is concerned, you should make niyyah for it, albeit in general terms, as no other ghusl can make up for it].