ablution,

When a person is too sick to use water or none is around when it is time to pray, he or she can perform tayammum in place of wudu' and ghusl. The requirements are as follows:

• Intending to perform tayammum to remove any impurity.
• Striking the pure soil lightly with the palms of both hands and passing the palms over the face one time.
• Striking the pure soil again with one's palms and rubbing the right and left arms alter nately from the fingertips to the elbows.

Tayammum is nullified as soon as the cause for performing it is removed (i.e., the sick person recovers or pure water is found). If a person performs tayammum and then prays, he or she does not have to repeat the prayer if the conditions for it are removed before the time for that particular prayer ends.

Wudu' involves washing with water at least once the usually exposed bodily parts, namely, the face, hands and arms up to (and including) the elbows, and feet, and wiping one-quarter of the head. It is obligatory for any obligatory or supererogatory prayer, circumambulating the Ka'ba, and touching the Qur'an with bare hands.

Wudu' is performed in the following manner:

1. Ensure that the water to be used is pure.
2. Intend to perform wudu' to offer prayer, if you plan to pray after taking it.
3. Recite: "Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim" (i.e., in the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate).
4. Wash the hands up to the wrists three times, and do not miss the parts between the fingers.
5. Clean your mouth with a brush or a finger, and gargle with water three times.
6. Rinse the nostrils with water three times.
7. Wash the face from the forehead to the chin and from ear to ear three times.
8. Wash the right arm followed by the left up to the elbows three times.
9. Wipe at least a quarter of the head with wet hands, pass the wet tips of the little fingers inside and the wet tips of the thumbs outside the ears, and pass the palms over the nape and sides of the neck.
10. Finall y, wash the feet up to (and including) the ankles, the right foot first and then the left, taking care to wash in between the toes, each three times. The obligatory acts are as follows:
11. Washing the face.
12. Washing both arms up to and including the elbows.
13. Wiping a quarter of the head with wet hands.
14. Washing both feet up to and including the ankles. The following acts nullify wudu':
15. Whatever comes out from the two private parts (front and back): waste matter, urine, wind, wadi (a thick white secretion discharged after urination), mazi (a white sticky fluid that flows from the sexual organs when thinking about sexual intercourse or foreplay, and so on), and prostatic fluid. Semen, menstrual blood, and post-childbirth blood require ghusl.
16. Emission of blood, pus, or yellow matter from a wound, boil, pimple, or something similar to such an extent that it flows beyond the wound's mouth.
17. Vomiting a mouthful of matter.
18. Physical contact for pleasure between men and women without any obstacle (e.g., clothes). If the head of one's penis disappears into a woman's vagina, ghusl is required.
19. Loss of consciousness through sleep, drowsiness, and so on.
20. Temporary insanity, fainting, hysteria, or intoxication.
21. Audible laughter during prayer.