wudu
Enable an AI agent to recognise an instance of wudu, record its performance and continuing ritual effect, and identify appropriate next actions under the practitioner's stated religious authority.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
Researched by: Codex + Grok
Purpose and description
Enable an AI agent to recognise an instance of wudu, record its performance and continuing ritual effect, and identify appropriate next actions under the practitioner's stated religious authority.
Wuḍūʾ is the Islamic minor ritual purification in which specified limbs are washed or wiped in a prescribed sequence so as to lift ḥadath aṣghar (minor ritual impurity) and make a person eligible for ṣalāh and other acts that require ṭahāra.
It can be Construct a wudu checklist from the practitioner's selected authority and circumstances.; Record reported washing, wiping, omissions, interruptions, and completion without claiming access to inward intention.; Identify a specific unresolved prerequisite or missed action and retrieve the applicable correction rule.; Reassess continuing wudu after a reported event using the selected authority's rules.; Identify when an accommodation or a linked ghusl or tayammum assessment is needed.; Explain the evidence and ruling behind an assessment while separating required actions from recommendations..
Distinguishing features
The episode is identified as Islamic ritual ablution, rather than inferred from ordinary handwashing, bathing, or visible cleanliness.
Its procedure concerns prescribed washing and wiping of specified body regions, rather than whole-body washing alone; the foundational passage is [Qur'an 5:6](https://legacy.quran.com/5/6).
It uses water-based washing or wiping; an episode identified as tayammum is linked to the neighbouring model rather than recorded as wudu.
A completed episode and a person's currently retained wudu are distinguishable: later events can affect the latter without changing the historical performance record.
Its sufficiency is assessed against an identified religious rule set, rather than a universal checklist assembled from different schools.
Scope
+ Identification of an intended or reported wudu episode and its relationship to an upcoming act of worship
+ The practitioner's applicable tradition, school, or religious authority and the rules used for assessment
+ Water suitability, bodily access, and circumstances affecting washing or wiping
+ Performance of required and recommended actions, including coverage, sequence, and interruptions
+ Completion, unresolved defects, and subsequent events relevant to retaining wudu
+ Applicable accommodations and referral to another purification practice
- Ghusl as a complete purification act and its independent requirements
- Tayammum as a distinct purification act
- Salah and other acts of worship beyond their interface with wudu requirements
- Removal of physical impurity, toilet cleansing, and ordinary hygiene as independent activities
- Medical diagnosis or treatment of conditions affecting purification
- Design and operation of ablution facilities and water infrastructure
Characteristics
- Applicable religious authority
- Practitioner-selected tradition, school, scholar, or ruling; unspecified Determines which requirements, exceptions, and continuity rules may be applied.
- Episode purpose
- Preparation for worship; renewal of retained wudu; other stated devotional purpose; unknown Separates the reason for performing wudu from an assumption that previous wudu had ended.
- Performance stage
- Planned; in progress; interrupted; reported complete; abandoned Distinguishes progress through the act from a judgment of ritual sufficiency.
- Intention evidence
- Practitioner-reported intention and timing; not reported; unclear Allows authority-specific assessment without treating an inward intention as externally observable.
- Body-region action and coverage
- Per applicable region: wash or wipe; extent reached; omitted; uncertain; accommodated Makes missed areas and differences in prescribed technique assessable.
- Washing and wiping repetitions
- Count per action and body region Allows required sufficiency and recommended repetition to be evaluated separately.
- Interruption duration
- Elapsed seconds or minutes, with drying and environmental context when relevant Supports continuity assessment without inventing a universal time limit.
- Water and access assessment
- Suitable and accessible; suitability unresolved; unavailable; use constrained Determines whether ordinary performance can proceed or an accommodation needs consideration.
- Completion assessment
- Sufficient under selected authority; defect identified; unresolved; not assessed Keeps an assessment tied to its rule basis and available evidence.
- Continuing wudu assessment
- Retained under selected authority; ended under selected authority; uncertain; not assessed Supports later decisions without assuming that every new prayer requires another episode.
Also called
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 6 bundles · 11 layers · 18 findings · 28 questions.
Ritual identity and rule basis Establish which act is being recorded and which religious interpretation governs its assessment.
Similar washing behaviour can serve different purposes, and wudu cannot be assessed reliably through an unspecified mixture of rulings.
Episode and intention
Identify the particular ablution episode and the practitioner's account of its purpose.
Wudu identification
Record whether the practitioner identifies this act as wudu and what is known about intention, without inferring it from appearance.
- What identifies this episode as wudu rather than ordinary washing or part of a ghusl? definition
- What purpose and intention timing has the practitioner reported, if any? provenance
Applicable authority
Bind performance judgments to an identified and traceable rule set.
Authority-specific requirements
Record the authority used and distinguish prerequisites, obligatory acts, recommendations, and unresolved differences.
- Which tradition, school, or authority does the practitioner follow for this episode, and which consulted source supplies its rules? provenance
- Which requirements remain undecidable if the authority is unspecified or the available sources disagree? boundary
Water and body readiness Record whether the available water and access to required body regions permit the applicable procedure.
A checklist of gestures is insufficient when water suitability or barriers prevent the prescribed washing or wiping.
Water qualification
Separate the water's religious suitability from its availability and practical usability.
Usable purification water
Record relevant water properties and constraints, leaving disputed suitability to the selected authority.
- What is known about the water's source, alteration, or contamination, and how does the selected authority classify it? provenance
- Is sufficient suitable water accessible for the required washing and wiping? action
Contact and coverage access
Identify circumstances affecting water contact with the regions required by the applicable rules.
Barriers and covered regions
Record coatings, dressings, garments, or bodily circumstances that may affect required contact without assuming they all have the same ruling.
- Which required regions have coatings or coverings that may prevent the prescribed water contact? measurement
- Which can be exposed normally, and which require an authority-specific accommodation assessment? action
Washing and wiping performance Record the actual body-region actions and their temporal relationships.
Wudu assessment requires knowing what was washed or wiped and how the episode proceeded, rather than merely recording that water was used.
Regional actions
Represent prescribed regions, action types, and extent without imposing one school's complete procedure on every practitioner.
Required region coverage
Use the face, arms, head, and feet as foundational regions while resolving exact boundaries and washing or wiping requirements through the selected interpretation. [Qur'an 5:6](https://legacy.quran.com/5/6)
- For each prescribed region, which washing or wiping action and extent does the selected authority require? definition
- What coverage and repetition count were reported for each region, and what remains unknown? measurement
Sequence and continuity
Record action order and gaps when these affect assessment.
Ordered performance and pauses
Keep the observed sequence and interruptions distinct from the authority's judgment about their consequences.
- In what order were the actions performed, and where did pauses or restarts occur? measurement
- Under the selected authority, does any ordering or continuity defect require completing an action, repeating part of the sequence, or restarting? action
Completion and retained wudu Assess the completed act separately from whether its ritual effect continues.
An agent must distinguish incomplete performance, later loss of wudu, and uncertainty about either.
Completion judgment
Determine whether the available account supports sufficiency under the selected rules.
Defects and correction
Identify specific unmet requirements and distinguish them from omitted recommendations or missing evidence.
- Which applicable requirements are supported, contradicted, or unreported in this episode? measurement
- What correction, if any, is supported by the selected authority for each identified defect? action
Subsequent events and doubt
Track relevant events after completion and the authority's treatment of uncertainty.
Continuing effect assessment
Record reported candidate nullifiers, such as bodily discharge or sleep, without assuming identical criteria across authorities or treating doubt as a confirmed event.
- What potentially relevant event was reported after completion, when did it occur, and is it certain or suspected? provenance
- How does the selected authority treat that event or doubt when deciding whether wudu remains in effect? action
Accommodations and worship interface Represent exceptional performance routes and the limited conclusions wudu supports about a subsequent act of worship.
Ordinary performance may be constrained, and sufficient wudu alone does not establish every prerequisite for worship.
Modified performance
Record a claimed accommodation together with its authority, qualifying circumstances, and limits.
Accommodation eligibility
Support investigation of wiping over coverings, assisted performance, injury-related constraints, and continuing discharge without treating any concession as automatic.
- Which circumstance prevents or modifies ordinary performance, and what evidence establishes it? provenance
- What ruling authorises the proposed accommodation, and what conditions or time limits govern its use? boundary
Purification and worship handoff
Connect the assessed episode to the intended worship requirement and neighbouring purification acts.
Limited readiness conclusion
Return a conclusion about the wudu requirement only; ghusl can interact with that requirement and needs an explicit authority-based handoff. [Dar al-Ifta discussion of ghusl and wudu](https://dar-alifta.org/ar/fatwa/details/16339/الاكتفاء-بالاغتسال-عن-الوضوء)
- For the intended act of worship, what wudu-related prerequisite does the selected authority require, and is it currently satisfied? boundary
- Do the recorded circumstances call for renewal, a ghusl assessment, a tayammum assessment, or resolution by the practitioner's religious authority? action
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Kinds and varieties
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Farḍ wuḍūʾ: the four Qurʾanic acts only (wash face, wash arms to the elbows, wipe the head, wash or wipe the feet to the ankles)
- Complete/sunnah wuḍūʾ: the farḍ acts plus recommended elements (intention, basmala, hands, mouth and nose, ears, up to three washings, observed order and continuity)
- Wuḍūʾ with masḥ over khuffayn, substituting a wipe of qualifying footwear for washing the feet
- Wuḍūʾ with masḥ over a jabīrah (bandage, cast, or medical covering) when washing the limb would harm
- Imāmī (Twelver Shīʿī) wuḍūʾ, distinguished in practice by wiping the feet rather than washing them
- Tajdīd al-wuḍūʾ: a fresh wuḍūʾ performed while already in a state of purity, commonly before a later prayer
- Madhhab-conditioned obligatory sets (e.g. niyya as farḍ in Shāfiʿī and Ḥanbalī law; dalk and muwālāt in Mālikī law)
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of wudu this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Identifiers and schemes
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Arabic lemma - وضوء - Classical and modern Arabic; also vocalized wuḍūʾ.
- common Latin spellings - wudu | wudhu | wuzu | wuḍūʾ - Orthography varies by language of publication; none is an issuing-authority code.
- Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of wudu this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Standards and regulation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Qurʾan 5:6 as the primary revealed prescription of the four acts and of tayammum when water cannot be used
- Sunni fiqh of the Ḥanafī, Mālikī, Shāfiʿī, and Ḥanbalī schools, which specify farḍ, sunna, water grades, and nullifiers
- Jaʿfarī (Imāmī) fiqh for Twelver practice, including wiping rather than washing the feet
- Hadith collections used as procedural sources, above all the wuḍūʾ books of al-Bukhārī and Muslim
- Where wuḍūʾ rooms are built, ordinary national plumbing, drainage, and public-hygiene codes apply; there is no single transnational building standard for the rite
- Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of wudu this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Performed at home, in workplace prayer rooms, and in mosque wuḍūʾ halls immediately before the five daily prayers
- Treated in most schools as a condition for ṭawāf of the Kaʿba and, commonly, for touching a muṣḥaf
- Taught as a basic skill in children's religious instruction and in conversion/new-Muslim guidance
- Built into mosque architecture as dedicated wet rooms with low taps or troughs, seating, and floor drains
- Still performed with a jug or ewer in households and travel settings without convenient running water
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of wudu this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Typical measurements
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- water volume for one complete wuḍūʾ - about 0.5-2 with a vessel or careful tap use; a classical mudd is about 0.5-0.75; free-flowing taps often 3-8 - L
- time to perform - 1-5 - min
- washings per limb - 1 (minimum validity in most schools) to 3 (sunnah) - count
- duration of masḥ over khuffayn (majority Sunni) - 24 for a resident; 72 for a traveller - h
- Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of wudu this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Nullification by ḥadath (urine, feces, passing wind, deep sleep, and school-dependent extras such as touching the genitals or skin-to-skin contact)
- Leaving a dry patch or omitting an obligatory limb, which leaves the wuḍūʾ invalid
- Breaking required order (tartīb) or continuity (muwālāt) in schools that treat those as farḍ
- Using najis water, or in some schools previously used (mustaʿmal) water
- Ṣalāh performed without valid wuḍūʾ is itself invalid
- Isrāf (waste of water), especially at free-running taps
- Slips on wet wuḍūʾ floors; dermatitis or infection from over-washing or poorly kept shared facilities
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of wudu this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Turkish and Balkan usage: abdest
- Persian: vozu / dast-namāz
- South Asia: wuzū
- Malay-Indonesian: wudhu, often at long communal troughs
- Sinophone Muslim usage: 小净 (xiǎojìng)
- Shīʿī-majority practice: wipe the feet; a ewer (āftābeh) remains common in domestic settings
- Maghribī Mālikī practice: rubbing (dalk), strong continuity, and a different nullifier set
- Wiping over ordinary cloth socks is common in some cold-climate and some Salafi-influenced settings, against the classical khuff conditions of the four schools
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of wudu this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- ghusl - Ghusl is the major full-body wash that lifts ḥadath akbar (janāba, menses, nifās); wuḍūʾ does not lift major impurity and does not wash the whole body.
- tayammum - Tayammum is the dry substitute using earth or a like surface when water is unavailable or medically harmful; it is not wuḍūʾ performed with water.
- istinjāʾ / istijmār - Cleaning the private parts after elimination; it is a prior hygiene act, not the four-limb rite of wuḍūʾ.
- ordinary washing - Washing for hygiene, cooling, or first aid lacks the prescribed limbs, sequence, and intention that constitute ritual wuḍūʾ.
- Christian baptism or liturgical ablution - A different religion's rite with different theology and frequency; baptism is not a repeated pre-prayer limb-washing of the Islamic type.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of wudu this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Sources
- The Qurʾan, Sūrat al-Māʾida 5:6 (revealed scripture; widely printed and recited recensions) - The scriptural list of the four acts of wuḍūʾ, the concession of tayammum when water cannot be used, and the framing of the rite as purification before prayer.
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Kitāb al-Wuḍūʾ (Book of Ablutions), compiled by Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī - Prophetic descriptions of how wuḍūʾ was performed, water economy, nullifiers, and related rulings used across Sunni fiqh.
- "Wuḍūʾ", Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition, Brill - Scholarly overview of the rite, its legal structure, and its distinction from ghusl and tayammum.
What the second pass must settle
- Which Sunni, Shi'a, Ibadi, and other authority profiles must the model support, and which primary or recognised interpretive sources will establish each profile?
- How should each supported authority's rules for intention, anatomical boundaries, foot washing or wiping, repetitions, order, and continuity be represented without combining incompatible requirements?
- What exact conditions govern water suitability, barriers, wiping over coverings, injuries, assisted performance, and continuing discharge in each supported profile?
- How does each supported authority distinguish confirmed nullifiers from doubt, and how should assessments preserve the difference between unreported evidence and a ritual defect?
- Where should the authoritative interface with ghusl, tayammum, and worship-specific purification requirements sit so that the catalogue does not duplicate or contradict those neighbouring models?