Wudu (Ablution): An Effective Preventive Measure against Many Infectious Diseases

Abstract

Wudu (Ablution) is an Arabic word which means the specific action of washing certain body parts. In these body parts, hands, mouth, nostrils, face, arms, and feet included. In religion Islam, wudu has great importance. Muslims are required to perform wudu before offering the prayer five times a day. As we all know pathogens can enter in our body through mouth, nose and eyes directly or indirectly from our contaminated hands. So wudu can significantly reduce the chances of different infections e.g. oral cavity infections, intestinal infections, certain contact infections like skin and eyes, respiratory infections including present pandemic Covid-19 etc. A major aspect of communicable disease control relates to "breaking the chain of transmission" or interruption of transmission. Personal hygiene (especially hand washing) is one of the important practices in breaking the chain; that is why it is being emphasized by epidemiologists and clinicians. However, in Islam it has been ordered in Quran and hadith 1450 years ago. Wudu five or more times a day (for offering prayers) can also provide us good hygiene and helps to prevent the spread of many infections.Many infections including present pandemic Covid-19 posing a great threat to public health and unfortunately for Covid-19 we still do not have any specific treatment or vaccine. We can only protect people from such infections through preventive measures like boosting of immunity, good personal hygiene, physical distancing etc. Hence it is high time to educate people about the importance and basic steps of wudu for good personal hygiene.