Washing the Hands in Wudhu Q. A Moulana avers that when washing the hands in wudhu after the washing of the face, the hands should be washed from the wrists till the elbows, not from the fingers, as the latter case will result in the hands till the wrists being washed six times whereas the Hadeeth proscribes washing a limb in wudhu more than thrice. Please comment. A. One is the sunnat of washing the hands at the beginning of wudhu. The second is the fardh of washing the hands till the elbows. The third practice is tathleeth or washing thrice. At the beginning of wudhu it is sunnat to wash the hands till the wrists thrice. Although this part has now been washed and in the case of it not being washed again the wudhu will be valid, it nevertheless remains sunnat to wash again from the fingers till the elbows thrice when washing the hands after the face. The averment of this resulting in the hands till the wrists being washed six times which is in conflict with the Hadeeth, is the product of misunderstanding the Hadeeth. Our Fuqaha have not ventured to make such a claim. In fact, they explicitly state that repeating the washing of the hands is neither futile nor wasteful. It is, in fact, Sunnat.
