Ghusl (Arabic: غسل, IPA: [ˈɣusl]) is an Arabic term referring to the full ablution (ritual washing) required in Islam for various rituals and prayers. The ablution becomes mandatory for any adult Muslim after having sexual intercourse, any sexual discharge (e.g. of semen), completion of the menstrual cycle, giving birth, and death by natural causes.
Islam also recommends (i.e. it is mustahab) the performance of the full ablution before the Friday and Eid prayers, before entering the ehram, in preparation for hajj, after having lost consciousness, and after formally converting to Islam. Shia Muslims also perform the ablution before Namaz-e-tawbah.
Ghusl should not be confused with wudu, a partial ablution, that Muslims perform before salat.
The Qur'anic mandate for Ghusl comes in the forty-third ayat of sura 4 (An-Nisa (Women)):
"O ye who believe! Approach not prayers with a mind befogged, until ye can understand all that ye say,- nor in a state of ceremonial impurity (Except when travelling on the road), until after washing your whole body. If ye are ill, or on a journey, or one of you cometh from offices of nature, or ye have been in contact with women, and ye find no water, then take for yourselves clean sand or earth, and rub therewith your faces and hands. For Allah doth blot out sins and forgive again and again."