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Fatwa CenterShe has whispers about the intention of Ghusl
Question
salam aleikom wa rahmatu allahi wa barakatuh.I have question that i did not solve to find an answer for.Ever since i converted and married and i had to make a ghusl and for so i just intended to make ghusl and made the action itself.But lately i read plenty of fatawa stating that before ghusl ,one should form his /her intention like "ghusl from janaba" or "ghusl from menstruation" and so on...Now im asking if that is really obligatory cause i cant seem to make it.I can not state in mind or think anything except the "ghusl",i got used to this,as a habitual thing.now when i make the ghusl i start having doubts about my intention and end up spending an hour or two finding the corect intention and it all confuses me even more,it might be waswas but please,this took me 2 months already and im horrified to make another ghusl..i cant always blame it on the waswas,asnit is pure incapacity from my part. I was not used to think these things in my ghusl,i just intended ghusl and thats it and formed the ritual bathing as it is prescribed in sunnah.I really tried thinking or making different kind of aims thinking they are intentions but i ended up shaking in fear that its not the correct ghusl now and maybe my prayers will not be valid so. So can i just make the ghusl of janaba intenting just to ghusl =the ritual bath? JazakAllah khair,and barak Allahu feek!
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
First of all, we advise you to avoid whispers as there is no other way to get rid of them. Intention is an easy matter because the meaning of intention is to intend [to do something], and, no doubt, that you perform Ghusl with a given purpose, so this purpose is your intention.
However, the required intention for Ghusl due to menses or due to sexual defilement is achieved if a woman who performs Ghusl intends to purify herself from sexual defilement if she was in a state of sexual defilement, or to remove the state of being impure from menses if she was in menses [and her menses stopped], or to perform an act that needs purity like the prayer, or that she intends performing the obligation of Ghusl or the obligatory Ghusl, or doing Ghusl.
In fact, achieving this intention does not constitute a hardship because the intention as we mentioned means intending to do an act. Since you believe that Ghusl after sexual defilement or after the end of menses is an obligation on you, and you performed Ghusl in order to achieve this obligation, or that you performed Ghusl in order to perform the prayer or other acts that need purity, then the intention is achieved as we mentioned and your Ghusl is valid. The place of intention is the heart and there is no need to mention it by tongue.
On the other hand, if you intended just to clean yourself and did not intend the obligatory Ghusl, and did not intend anything of what we mentioned above, then your Ghusl is not valid and in this case you have to make up all the prayers that you had performed with that Ghusl.
For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 88124 and 83401.
Allaah Knows best.
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