NOT STARTING THE WASHING OF THE FOREARM FROM THE ELBOW

[Bararthani]

Question: What is the ruling of a person who, due to justifiable ignorance of the ruling, does not start washing his forehead or elbows from the top of that organ during ablution and later in continuation of ablution, washes that upper part of the organ? For example, he washes from the mid of the forearm to the tips of the fingers with the intention of ablution, then he washes the dry part of the forearm from the elbow to the mid of the forearm.

Answer: If when he starts to wash from the elbow, he washes to the fingers (even if before that, he only washed from the mid of the forearm to the fingers), then his ablution is valid, but if he only performs ablution from the elbow to the mid of the forearm (the part that was left unwashed previously), then such ablution is invalid, and the prayer that was performed with it is also void, and in this matter, there is no difference between justifiable and unjustifiable ignorance.