Guidance for those who neglect washing their heels due to ignorance or inability
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Question:
The questioner says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: I see some elderly illiterate people; I see some elderly illiterate people performing wudu (ablution) but not washing their heels, and the water does not reach them, either out of ignorance or inability. What is your guidance in this matter? And is their prayer valid?
Answer:
It is obligatory that they be informed of this and commanded to wash their feet completely, and they must not be left in their ignorance. If you leave them in their ignorance, you are the one responsible before Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He). So you must convey this to these people and teach them how to perform wudu, how to purify themselves, and how to worship Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He). This is the concern of scholars and the pursuit of knowledge: that they teach people the matters of their religion through instruction. As for limiting oneself to lectures, sermons, and warnings, that is not sufficient, and that is not teaching.
Teaching means you teach people how to purify themselves. You teach people how to pray. You teach people how to pay the zakah of their wealth, and so on. And before that, you teach people the creed (aqidah), you warn them against shirk (associating partners with Allah), and you clarify it for them. As for merely standing for an hour or half an hour and speaking about admonition and reminders, that does not benefit them regarding their acts of worship. Yes, it benefits them in terms of warning, encouraging, and threatening; there is nothing wrong with that.
But that is not sufficient given their ignorance of the matters of their religion. The callers to Allah (da'wah) are now numerous, as they say, associations and worldly affairs, but there is no teaching in the teaching. And this is a great deficiency that Muslims must be aware of. They should start by teaching people the matters of their religion, their acts of worship, and their creed as the first thing, and then comes the turn of admonition, reminders, encouragement, and warnings. Yes.
The questioner says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: I see some elderly illiterate people; I see some elderly illiterate people performing wudu (ablution) but not washing their heels, and the water does not reach them, either out of ignorance or inability. What is your guidance in this matter? And is their prayer valid?
Answer:
It is obligatory that they be informed of this and commanded to wash their feet completely, and they must not be left in their ignorance. If you leave them in their ignorance, you are the one responsible before Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He). So you must convey this to these people and teach them how to perform wudu, how to purify themselves, and how to worship Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He). This is the concern of scholars and the pursuit of knowledge: that they teach people the matters of their religion through instruction. As for limiting oneself to lectures, sermons, and warnings, that is not sufficient, and that is not teaching.
Teaching means you teach people how to purify themselves. You teach people how to pray. You teach people how to pay the zakah of their wealth, and so on. And before that, you teach people the creed (aqidah), you warn them against shirk (associating partners with Allah), and you clarify it for them. As for merely standing for an hour or half an hour and speaking about admonition and reminders, that does not benefit them regarding their acts of worship. Yes, it benefits them in terms of warning, encouraging, and threatening; there is nothing wrong with that.
But that is not sufficient given their ignorance of the matters of their religion. The callers to Allah (da'wah) are now numerous, as they say, associations and worldly affairs, but there is no teaching in the teaching. And this is a great deficiency that Muslims must be aware of. They should start by teaching people the matters of their religion, their acts of worship, and their creed as the first thing, and then comes the turn of admonition, reminders, encouragement, and warnings. Yes.
Source
شرح كتاب المنتقى من أخبار المصطفى صلى الله عليه وسلم، بداية من باب أن الأذنين من الرأس وأنهما يمسحان بمائه — islamhouse.com (52:32)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.