Wudu: order of parts

Assalamu alaikum,

As I was learning how to make wudu, I noticed some descriptions added extra parts. It was confusing to me. Some of the details given commonly are sunnah, which means muhammad, pbuh, sometimes did them and it's good to copy. However they aren't required. For example, some people say you have to wash each part 3 times except for the hair. It's sunnah to do it 3 times, but just once does the job. That said, it's not much hardship to move over each part 3 times. In addition, I also have the impression that different schools of thought do things differently. I used to be confused by the order we wash-up before prayer. Here is the way I think of it. This isn't coming from a scholar, remember. It's more like a mnemonic device.

Prequel - use wudu as a time to prepare your mind, not just your body. That's part of why we should make our intention of what we are doing and why.

1. Hands - wrist to elbow starting with the right hand (just like with forearms and feet, and like at the end of prayer where we greet the angel on the right first). We start with hands because we use them to clean the rest of us. Of course we do them first.

2. Face - swish in mouth, then up the nose (so nose water won't drip to your mouth when you clean it), then face - middle to the outside then down (done last, so it also wipe away any moisture around nose or mouth and sweeps it away).

3. Forearm - wrist to elbow, starting with the right. We do the forearm now, so we were not dripping that water down our forearms and scattering it further with the extra movement that happens while washing the face.

4. Wipe hair and ears - our wet elbows point down, letting the water drip-dry down with minimal water scatter. We're almost done, we needed to finish up top before the last....step....ha-ha...

5. Feet  - ankle to toes, starting on the right foot.


There is also a rhythm to it. Starting down with the hands...

down (hands)
up      (face)
down (elbows)
up      (head)
down (feet)

Divide the parts like this and you have 5 steps, like there are 5 prayers each day.

Epilogue: Now that you are ritually clean (clean for the purposes of prayer), you should go pray as soon as you can instead of waiting. It's better that way, plus you're less likely to nullify your wudu by "passing wind" or some-such.