فِقْه مُيَسَّرFiqh Made Easy

What is fiqh?

The word fiqh means understanding. As a science, it's defined as recognising the religious rulings from their detailed proofs — the part of Islam that teaches you how to do things the right way: how to wash for prayer, how to pray, how to fast, and more.

Where do the rulings come from? The absolute proofs are the Qur'an, the Sunnah (the words and actions of the Prophet ﷺ), and ijma (the consensus of the ummah — what all the scholars agree on). The main relative proof is qiyas (analogy — comparing a new case to one already ruled on). A faqeeh (jurist) uses these to work out the ruling for every action.

Why should you learn it?

• Knowledge is the best treasure. The Prophets didn't leave money behind — they left knowledge. Every bit you learn is a gift you pick up from them.
• You can't do something right if you don't know how. You need to be clean before you pray — so first you have to learn how to get clean properly.
• Do it for Allah, not to show off. The Prophet ﷺ taught that actions are judged by why you did them. Learn to please Allah.
• Ask a teacher when you can. Books help, but a good teacher helps you understand better and make fewer mistakes.

Every action gets one of 5 rulings

The 5 legal maxims (rules of thumb)

Five big principles run through every chapter of fiqh. Watch for them in this guide.

1. Deeds are but by their intentions.→ Your niyyah (intention) is what makes an act count.
2. Certainty is not negated by doubt.→ Sure you had wudu, but "maybe" broke it? You still have it — follow the yaqeen (certainty).
3. Hardship brings ease (concessions).→ That's why concessions like tayammum exist when water is out of reach.
4. No harm, and no reciprocating harm.→ Like not relieving yourself where it bothers people.
5. Customs ('urf) are given consideration.→ Like whether socks count as khuff — judged by what people consider walkable.

The big picture

Fiqh is a huge subject, so scholars split it up. One easy way is into two big groups:

• Fiqh al-ʿibadat — worship (how you connect with Allah): purification, prayer, fasting, zakat, hajj.
• Fiqh al-muʿamalat — dealings (how you live with people): buying and selling, marriage, and more.

A more detailed way splits it into four parts:

The 6 chapters of the Worship book

The book you're studying has six chapters, in this order:

1. Taharah (Purification)  you are here
2. Salah (Prayer)
3. Funerals
4. Zakat (Charity)
5. Fasting
6. Hajj & Umrah

Every act of worship (like wudu or salah) is made of 4 kinds of parts. Knowing the difference — especially between a fardh and a wajib — is the thing teachers love to test!

The two things to remember

• Shart vs. fardh: both make your worship invalid if missing. The difference is where they sit. A shart is set up before the action and must stay true the whole time (having wudu, facing the qibla). A fardh is a step inside the action (like bowing in salah, or washing your face in wudu).
• Fardh vs. wajib (the big one!): if you forget a fardh, the act is still invalid — you must go back and do it. If you forget a wajib, you're excused — you fix it with sujud sahw (the prostration of forgetfulness) in prayer.
• Sunan: skipping them never invalidates anything. Your worship still counts.

Easy example: the 4 building blocks of Wudu

Who has to pray?

• Every Muslim who has reached puberty and is of sound mind (sane).

Who doesn't pray (or whose prayer doesn't count)?

• A woman during her menses (hayd) or postpartum bleeding (nifas) — she doesn't pray.
• Someone who is not sane.
• A child too young to understand. A child starts to understand at about age 7. If a young child prays, that's great — it counts as nafl (voluntary), even though it's not obligatory yet.

Kids and prayer

Parents should tell their child to pray at age 7, and be firm about it by age 10 — even before the child reaches puberty.

How serious is abandoning salah?

The 6 shurut

1. Taharah — you're clean of ritual impurity (you have wudu, and ghusl if it was needed).
2. The prayer's time has entered.
3. Your awrah is covered (the part of the body that must be covered).
4. No najasa (impurity) on your body, clothes, or spot.
5. You face the qibla (toward the Kaaba).
6. Niyyah — you intend this exact prayer.

When each prayer starts

Covering the awrah

The awrah is the part of the body that must be covered. You must cover it even when you're alone. Clothes that are see-through (you can see your skin color) don't count as covering.

Najasa · Facing the qibla · Niyyah

No najasa (impurity)

• Keep your body, clothes, and prayer spot free of najasa.
• If you didn't know there was najasa on you, your prayer still counts. If you knew and forgot, you have to repeat it.
• Don't pray (without a valid excuse) in places like a graveyard, bathroom, or the middle of the road. A sidewalk is fine.

Facing the qibla

• If you can see the Kaaba, face it exactly. If not, face its general direction.
• If you don't even try to find the direction (when you easily could), your prayer is invalid — even if you happened to face the right way.

Niyyah (intention)

• In your heart, decide which prayer you're praying, right before you start.
• If you only have a general intention, it counts as a nafl (voluntary) prayer.
• You can switch a fardh prayer into a nafl — but not the other way around.

The 3 categories of water

The two-qullatayn rule (very useful!)

• A large amount — two qullatayn or more (about 300+ litres, think a big drum): najasa doesn't ruin it, unless it changes the water's color, smell, or taste.
• A small amount (less than two qullatayn): any najasa makes it impure immediately — even one drop of urine, even if nothing looks different.

• You can use any container by default — all utensils are permissible.
• Haram Gold and silver utensils — haram to use, and therefore haram to keep. (A small amount of silver just to fix a broken utensil is okay.)
• Not sure if a non-Muslim's utensils or clothes are pure? The default is that they are pure.

Skin of an unslaughtered dead animal (maytah)

• If an animal died without proper slaughter, its skin stays najas — tanning does not purify it.
• You can still use the tanned skin (like a bag), but only for dry things, and you can't pray wearing it. (In the madhhab, najasa transfers through wetness, not dryness.)
• Exceptions: fish and locusts are fine.
• Hair, wool, and feathers from a dead animal are pure (taahir).

• Istinja = cleaning the private parts with water. Istijmaar = wiping with stones (or tissue, which follows the same rules). It is wajib whenever anything exits the two private parts.
• If you only passed wind, no istinja is needed.
• Best order: istijmaar first (stones/tissue), then istinja with water. If you can only do one, water alone is better than stones alone.
• For istijmaar: use something taahir (pure), dry, and permissible. Don't use food, bones, dung, or anything with Allah's name on it. Wipe at least 3 times.

• The miswak (siwak) is a sunnah — especially stressed before every salah, before wudu, and when your breath changes. (If you're fasting, it's makrooh after zawaal — midday, when the sun passes its peak.)
• Sunnahs of hygiene: begin with the right side (a sunnah in all things), clip your nails, pluck armpit hair, shave private-area hair, trim your mustache, wear perfume.
• Makrooh: shaving part of your head and leaving part; plucking out white hairs. (If your hair goes all white, you should dye it — but not black.)

Wudu means washing 4 areas with tahoor water: your face, arms, head, and feet.

The fardh of wudu

1. Wash your face — including gargling the mouth and rinsing the nose.
2. Wash your arms up to and including the elbows.
3. Wipe your whole head, including your ears.
4. Wash your feet up to and including the ankles.
5. Sequence — do them in this order.
6. Continuity — don't let a part dry out before you wash the next one. (If it dries because you took too long, redo the whole wudu.)

The tasmiyah — saying "Bismillah" at the start — is the one wajib of taharah. If you forget it, your wudu is still valid.

Instead of washing your feet each time, you can wipe on top of khuff (proper leather socks/footwear) — as long as you put them on while in a complete state of purity (you had wudu).

How long you can keep wiping

The clock starts from the first hadas (the first time you break wudu) after putting them on.

• Anything coming out of the two private parts (urine, feces, wind).
• A large amount of other najasa like blood or vomit — a small amount doesn't break it. (Saliva and snot are pure.)
• Deep sleep (where you can't hear what's around you). Light sleep sitting up doesn't invalidate.
• Washing a dead body.
• Eating camel meat.
• Apostasy (leaving Islam).
• Touching your private parts directly with your hand.
• Touching someone of the opposite gender (non-mahram) with desire, skin to skin.

When does ghusl become obligatory?

• Releasing sexual fluid — this includes ihtilaam (a wet dream). This puts you in janaba (major ritual impurity); a person in janaba is called junub.
• Marital (private) relations.
• Finishing menses (hayd) or postpartum bleeding (nifas).
• Converting to Islam.

How to do it (simple)

• Make the niyyah, say the tasmiyah ("Bismillah"), and do isbaagh — let water actually run over your whole body, not just wiping.
• A woman unties her hair for a hayd/nifas ghusl, but not for a janaba ghusl.

When ghusl is recommended (sunnah, not required)

• Before Jumu'ah (Friday prayer), before Eid, and before ihram for Hajj/Umrah.

When you can't use water — there's none around, or it would harm you (like sickness) — Islam gives you a concession (rukhsa): tayammum, dry ablution with clean earth or dust.

The fardh of tayammum (just 2 steps!)

1. Wipe your face.
2. Wipe your hands up to the wrists.

Rules

• Use tahoor earth with dust, or a dusty wall. Plain sand with no dust doesn't qualify.
• Searching for water first is fardh — if you skip the search, the tayammum is invalid.
• Do it after the prayer time enters, and redo it for each fardh prayer.
• It stands in for wudu/ghusl, but not for najasa on your clothes or surroundings — that still needs water.