Can We Do Wudu While Taking a Shower, and Is It Necessary to Cover One’s Private Part (Awra) When Taking a Bath?


Hanafi Fiqh

Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel

Question

Is it permissible to get normal ablution while having a shower rather than a ghusl?

As males, are we required to cover our awra while having a shower and only take it off due to necessity, for example, when having a ghusl?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

I pray you are well. Thank you for your question.

Among the emphasized sunnas of ghusl in order is to make an intention, wash hands, wash private parts, wash any filth from the body, then perform wudu, followed finally by pouring water all over the body, starting with the head for a total of three times.

Also, it is essential to note when one has completed the shower or purificatory bath (ghusl), one will have done wudu, too, like it is mentioned in the books of fiqh, one is immersed under flowing water or rain, and remain therein for the length of time it would take to wash the body three times. One will have fulfilled the sunna of washing the entire body three separate times. [Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah]

It is from the manners (adab) that one covers one’s private except for when one washes it. One will not be sinful if one has his private parts uncovered throughout the shower or bath (ghusl). [Nahlawi, al-Durar al-Mubaha]

Related:
Wet Dreams and Ritual Purity: A Reader
Purification in Islam: A Comprehensive Reader

Why not begin your search for knowledge by signing up for a course on Seekersguidance?

I pray this helps with your question.
Wassalam,
[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Mawlana Ilyas Patel is a traditionally-trained scholar who has studied in the UK, India, Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, and Turkey. He started his early education in the UK. He went on to complete the hifz of the Quran in India, then enrolled in an Islamic seminary in the UK, where he studied the secular and ‘Aalimiyya sciences. He then traveled to Karachi, Pakistan. He has been an Imam in Rep of Ireland for several years. He has taught hifz of the Quran, Tajwid, Fiqh, and many other Islamic sciences to children and adults onsite and online extensively in the UK and Ireland. He taught at a local Islamic seminary for 12 years in the UK, where he was a librarian and a teacher of Islamic sciences. He currently resides in the UK with his wife. His interest is a love of books and gardening.