Do Muslims wash their feet in the toilet?

Do they wash their feet in toilets? A: The pre-prayer ritual known as wudu requires Muslims to wash and cleanse their hands, face, head and forearms. Washing of feet in the toilet would negate the purpose of cleansing one's body before prayer.

sctimes.com - Immigration Fact Check: Prayer time - St. Cloud Times

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David Unze

dunze@stcloudtimes.com

Editor’s note: The St. Cloud Times is working to enlighten the debate about refugees and immigrants who have made their homes in this community. We are asking readers to submit their questions and we will answer them in a series of stories over the next several months. This is the fourth in the series. We answered a question earlier about whether there would be foot-washing stations in the proposed new Technical High School. Foot-washing stations, or any other accommodation that caters to one religion over another in public school, is a violation of federal law. Therefore, the school district has no plans for foot-washing stations at Tech.

That question and answer prompted follow-up questions from more than one reader.

Q: How do Muslim students adhere to their pre-prayer cleansing rituals if there are no foot-washing stations at the schools? Do they use the sinks? Do they wash their feet in toilets?

A: The pre-prayer ritual known as wudu requires Muslims to wash and cleanse their hands, face, head and forearms. Washing of feet in the toilet would negate the purpose of cleansing one’s body before prayer. The Muslim religion has exceptions to the pre-prayer cleansing rituals. It allows Muslims who have cleansed themselves in the morning to avoid having to cleanse themselves again before midday prayer. The midday prayer is the only one that happens while students are in school. If the student hasn’t used the restroom after cleansing in the morning and before the midday prayer, they don't have to do anything to further cleanse themselves before midday prayer. If they have used the restroom, or done other things that can invalidate the wudu from the morning, they can just wipe water over their shoes before midday prayer to meet the requirements of the ritual, said Abdi Abdirizak, a bilingual communications support specialist for the district. That avoids requiring the students to remove their shoes and socks to wash their feet before the midday prayer, he said. Adbirizak works at Apollo High School in a position that used to be called cultural navigator. And while he says he’s not an expert in the interpretation of the Muslim religion, he agreed to answer our questions from the perspective of a Muslim who sees how students at Apollo pray.

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“If you (cleanse feet) in the morning and you put on your socks and your boots, that for 24 hours you don’t have to take your socks off (to cleanse before prayer),” he said. “All you have to do is just wet your hands and make sure there is no water running off your hands and then wipe your hands over your shoes or over your socks.” He said there is a perception that the Muslim religion is rigid and doesn’t allow any deviation from those rigid standards. That isn’t so, he said. He was asked whether students would use the sinks to wash their feet. “I have not seen it in the schools myself. Have I heard it? I did. I heard that a student was using the sink,” Abdirizak said. “But never in the eight years that I’ve worked for the school district have I had a student brought to me and said that they were using the sink. If it happened, I would just coach him. Because the religious experts, the spiritual leaders can explain to them what they can do rather than doing that.” The Muslim religion allows prayer in open spaces that are clean, he said. That means that students could pray in any open areas in the school, like the commons or hallways. But because of security concerns and practicality, students usually pray in smaller rooms.

Follow David Unze on Twitter @sctimesunze or call him at 255-8740.

sctimes.com - Immigration Fact Check: Prayer time - St. Cloud Times

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