If you are not Muslim, you may be curious about why your Muslim colleagues are asking for a place where they can wash themselves, including their feet, before prayer.

Muslims pray five times a day - the timings and the specific process for these prayers is set out in the Quran. Before each prayer, it is necessary to perform a pre-prayer ritual in order to be spiritually pure.

Wudu (or Wudhu) is an ablution or cleansing ritual that is an important part of purity and cleanliness in Islam. It follows a process to wash hands, mouth, nostrils, arms, face, ears, hair and feet. It prepares one mentally and physically ahead of prayer and must therefore be performed correctly.

Here are the steps of wudu - the process takes around three minutes.

Here is a video where you can see the process from start to finish

You will see from this video, that it is much easier to perform wudu in a seamless flow from a seated position. In theory it is possible (although questionable for health and safety reasons), to perform wudu while standing at a handbasin, but the process will be much quicker and straightforward if there is a dedicated wudu footbath in the vicinity of where the prayers will be offered.

Ideally this facility should be out of sight of others, with a curtain or door to close it off - this will allow female Muslims to remove their hijab for the hair washing part of the ritual. If there are a large number of Muslims using the facility, a separate wudu area for men and women would be recommended.

If you are designing a multi-faith area in your facility, it is a good idea to consult with staff members in your organisation who would use the facility, to see what their requirements are. You can also download our free booklet: Diversity Matters: Guide to Best Practice Multi-Faith room design which covers the usual requests and requirements of people from different cultural and religious backgrounds.

We received this quote from a user of one of our office intallations:

"The office has very impressive amenities, but I was pleasantly surprised with the prayer space in particular.

In my experience female prayer spaces have often felt like an afterthought. However at this office I was able to comfortably remove my hijab and perform ablution to prepare for prayer. This is something that I have to anticipate not being able to do before I leave the house, because sometimes Muslim prayer spaces don't accommodate for women who wear hijab.

It meant a lot to me to be able to comfortably pray, as I was able to return to my desk reenergised and refocused, which is one of the great benefits of the five daily prayers Muslims observe and therefore helped me feel so much more motivated.

This for me is a great example of inclusivity and I hope that these facilities become a standard in all offices, especially by companies that are looking to attract female Muslim talent."

If you have any questions or need some advice about the design of your multi-faith room please contact our team.