The Almighty Allah (swt) states in the verse I have recited, "O you who have believed, when you rise to [perform] prayer, wash your faces and your forearms to the elbows and wipe over your heads and wash your feet to the ankles."[1]
In the hadith I have read, Prophet Muhammad (saw) says, "The key of paradise is prayer, and the key of prayer is wudu (being purified)."[2]
Dear Believers!
According to Islam, cleanliness is an indispensable responsibility that has its root in faith. Our sublime religion calls on people to purification who want to have a clean body, a peaceful heart, and a soul purified of sins. It therefore asks servants of Allah to stand before Him (swt) in a clean and pure form and manner through getting rid of material and spiritual impurities.
Dear Muslims!
Muslims view wudu both as an act that earns them merits of worship and as a blessing that protects them from uncleanliness and contamination. They start preparing for prayer, the pillar of the religion and the ascent of the soul, with wudu. They perform wudu before reciting the Holy Qur'an. They do not perform tawaf around the Ka'bah without wudu in place. Muslims thus clean, at least five times a day, their parts that get dirtied most, and become the addressee of the following glad tiding of Prophet Muhammad (saw): "Whoever performs wudu and performs it well, their sins leave the body, through their fingers."[3]
Dear Believers!
We are in an all-out fight as a nation against the COVID-19 pandemic that affects the whole world. The key to success in this struggle is through hygiene, wearing face masks, and observing social distancing. Let us not forget that wudu is the best opportunity for us to ensure regular and careful hygiene. We are the members of a very clean culture who grew up with the habit of performing wudu since childhood. The phrase "breaking the wudu" widely used in our language is an expression of the importance attached by our people to "being in state of wudu" all day.
Wudu, which gives cleanliness to our body and peace to our soul, is also the best protection against pandemic diseases. It helps us become a healthier society due to natural purification that comes with water. Then, let us make hygiene and purity ensured by wudu a part of our lives. As expressed in the Holy Qur'an, "Allah loves those who are constantly repentant and loves those who purify themselves."[4]
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[1] Ma'idah, 5/6.
[2] Tirmidhi, Taharah, 1.
[3] Muslim, Taharah, 33.
[4] Baqarah, 2/222.
General Directorate of Religious Services