Wudhu (Ablution for Prayer)

The Holy Prophet (peace be on him) said,

"WUDHU is the key to prayer as prayer is the key to Paradise. ISLAM lays extreme stress on cleanliness and "TAHARAT". 

As external actions have deep impact upon internal feelings, such as artificial crying makes a person sad as well as artificial laughter makes one happy so is cleanliness and ablution.

Purified body lends to purity of mind, however, cleanliness which is ablution, or wudhu, has been made compulsory before each prayer and in certain cases even a full bath has been made obligatory before prayer.

A Muslim is required to perform ablution (Wudhu) before Salat. Ablution prepares one mentally for Salat and it also helps concentration in prayer. It is essential to wash or moisturize these parts of the body to generate concentration because the dispersion of thoughts is due to the keenness of the body's five senses. The centers of the five senses are the eyes, ears, nose mouth, hands and feet. It has been proven from the expertise of neurologists that the chain of thought can be rerouted by cooling fingers of the hands and feet. They also say that concentration of thoughts can be achieved by cooling the nerv-ends. That is the Philosophy of Wudhu. A Mulim stands before his Creator by cooling nerve-ends of his body with Wudhu water and concentrating all his thoughts for the worship of the All-Mighty.

In Wudhu, we wash or moisturize the nerve-ends of the hands, feet, hair, mouth, nose and ears. All the main nerve-ends of the body are touched in Wudhu in one way or another. Perfect concentration of thoughts to create the proper worshipping atmosphere is thus attained.

As we learn from everyday experience that a person who has fainted can be brought back to his consc iousness by sprinkling water on his face, hands and feet which clearly proves our theory. That is why a Muslim is expected to achieve his external as well as internal consciousness by performing Wudhu.

Cleanliness and dirt are not compatible. Allah is clean and whosoever loves Him must be clean, externally as well as internally. Prayer, which is contact with Allah, is therefore unacceptable unless the person, who wants to contact his Lord, is clean. The Holy Prophet (peace be on him) said,

"The prayer of a person who does "HADATH" (passes urine, stool or wind) is not accepted till he performs or repeats Wudhu, the ablution."

Because the Muslim Ummah is expected to be the cleanest by performing ablution at least five times a day, the Holy Prophet (peace be on him) therefore, gave glad tidings that "On the day of Resurrection, my followers will be called "Ghurrul Muhajjaleen" the bright armed and bright faced, from the traces of ablution on them. Therefore, whosoever can increase the area of his radiance should try to do so by always performing ablution before the prayers. (Bukhari, Kitabul Wudhu).

Source : http://www.islamdoor.com/Prayers.htm