How to do Ghusl step by step, and when it is required

What Ghusl is for

Purity is the key to the prayer, and its most emphasised condition. It has two parts. The first is lifting the state of impurity: a minor state is lifted by Wudu, and a major state, such as Janabah (the state after intercourse or a sexual discharge), is lifted only by Ghusl. The second is removing physical dirt and impurity from your body, your clothes and the place where you pray.

Ghusl belongs to the first part. It is not about being dirty; it is an act of worship that prepares you to stand before Allah. And the book the course follows reminds us that inner purity, a heart free of Shirk and sins, matters even more than the purity of the body.

When Ghusl is required

• When you accept Islam. Someone who accepts Islam must do Ghusl. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded Qays ibn 'Asim to do Ghusl when he embraced Islam (Abu Dawud 355).
• After sexual intercourse, once penetration has fully taken place, even if there is no ejaculation.
• When semen comes out with a gush and pleasure, for a man or a woman. After a wet dream, Ghusl is required whenever the fluid is seen.
• When a period or post-natal bleeding ends.

Not every discharge needs Ghusl. Madhi (a thin fluid that comes with arousal) and Wadi (a thick white fluid after urinating) need only washing the private part and making Wudu.

The minimum Ghusl: enough for your first day

The minimum Ghusl is washing the whole body with water, with the intention. Make the intention in your heart; you do not need to say it aloud. Then let clean water reach every part of your body. That is a complete, valid Ghusl.

This is why the course teaches the minimum first. Its practice task for the lesson “Purity and your first Ghusl” is a single line: if you have not yet done the Ghusl of entering Islam, do it today, and the minimum way is enough. The fuller way comes a few lessons later, once you know Wudu.

The complete Sunnah Ghusl, step by step

This is the way the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did it. It includes Wudu, so if you have not learned Wudu yet, read How to make Wudu step by step first.

1. 1Make the intention in your heart.
2. 2Wash your hands.
3. 3Wash your private parts and any dirt on your body.
4. 4Make Wudu as you would for the prayer.
5. 5Run your wet fingers through your hair until the scalp is wet.
6. 6Pour three handfuls of water over your head.
7. 7Pour water over the rest of your body.

For women: for the Ghusl after Janabah you need not undo your plaits. For the Ghusl at the end of a period, you must undo them. The course's lesson on periods and post-natal bleeding explains the rest.

What waits until you have done Ghusl

Until you do Ghusl, someone in Janabah may not pray, do Tawaf (circling the Ka'bah), touch the Mushaf (the Arabic Qur'an), recite the Qur'an, or stay in a masjid. Passing through a masjid is allowed, and someone who has made Wudu may stay.

So the practical rule is simple: if Ghusl is due, do it before your next prayer. It takes a few minutes, and the prayer is waiting for you on the other side of it.

When water cannot be used

Islam does not ask for what you cannot do. When water cannot be used, Tayammum (wiping with clean earth) takes the place of both Wudu and Ghusl. The course teaches how in Level 2, in the lesson “When water is hard: wiping over socks and Tayammum”.

Other times for Ghusl, and what to ask a scholar

Ghusl is also recommended on the two Eid days, and the Ghusl for Friday is taught in the lesson on Jumu'ah, the Friday prayer.

Some questions about Ghusl go beyond a first course, and the course does not teach them: Ghusl for each separate act of intercourse, Ghusl for Ihram or after washing the dead, the washing of someone who has died, and the age at which intercourse makes Ghusl due. For these, ask a scholar.

In the course, Ghusl is lesson 4 of 41, nine minutes long, inside Level 1, “First steps: believe, purify, pray”. You can read every lesson's aim on the course syllabus.