Millions of Muslims throughout the year travel to Makkah to perform Umrah. Umrah can be performed in a very short time even within 2 hours depending upon the number of pilgrims. Umrah is not an obligatory act of worship therefore there is no limit on the number of Umrah a Muslim can perform in his/her lifetime. However certain conditions apply regarding the Mahram of women when she performs Umrah. A woman over the age of 45 years must be accompanied by a mahram which should be a relative whose age is 17 or above. On the other hand, women aged more than 45 can travel with the tour groups that take Muslims to the Holy Land Makkah without being accompanied by a Mahram. Muslims are brought to Saudi Arabia by several tour groups from different countries. Many tour groups pick up Muslims from the UK and take them to Makkah by offering them the best and most affordable Umrah packages from the UK. They have facilitated many Muslims wishing to travel in groups and perform Umrah.
Before you perform Umrah it is necessary first to attain purity both internal and external. Internal includes your soul and external your body. For internal purity, you need to clean your heart from malice and all sort of things that diverts your attention from Islam. One should forgive everyone and should not have any bad feelings for someone or any other feeling to hurt someone. The next step is your external body purity for which you need to perform Ghusl. Ghusl is the ritual purification of the entire body. The performance of ghusl (ritual bathing) for Umrah is similar to the performance of ghusl for any other purpose. There are a few steps to perform Ghusl which should be carried out in order to complete your Ghusl. The steps are enlisted below:
1. State the intention to perform Ghusl.
2. Before starting the Ghusl, say Bismillah. One should start any task with the name of Allah to have Allah's blessings in it.
3. Wash your hands three-time
4. Rinse the mouth till water fills and reaches the entire mouth
5. Wash your nostrils as far as the part of the flesh.
6. Rinse water thoroughly through your private parts and any other part of your body which is impure, making sure they get washed properly
7. Perform Wudu as every Muslim does before the prayer. Wudu is an Islamic way of cleaning your body.
8. If you are bathing on an elevated platform where the water flows quickly, you must perform full Wudu. However, if your feet come into contact with the water, simply wash them at the end of the bath.
9. Wash your head thoroughly with water so that the water reaches your scalp, men should also wash their beards, the woman should also wash their heads thoroughly, and not a single hair should be left unwashed or dry, otherwise, your Ghusl would not be complete and would be considered invalid.
10. Pour water on yourself starting from the right side of your body and then on the left side, finally on the whole body making sure that no part is left dry. Repeat this three times, rubbing your hands all over your body as you wash.
11. Once you have completed your Ghusl, step one side away from the area where you performed the Ghusl. Wash your feet if not washed, but if your feet get washed during the process then no need to wash them again.
12. Dry yourself with a clean towel. Then get dressed.
Performing all these steps in sequence would complete your Ghusl, which every Muslim is required to perform before going to Umrah. As far as the Ghusl for men and women are considered A woman performs ghusl in the same way as a man, except that if she has braided hair, she does not need to untie it, provided that the water can reach the roots of her hair.
Comments