Assalaamu alaykum. My question is: what are the obligatory acts of Ghusl (ritual bath) according to the Hanafi School of Thought? May Allah reward you.

All perfect praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

The author of Al-Ikhtiyaar li Ta’leel Al-Mukhtaar, when clarifying the obligatory acts of Ghusl according to the Hanafi School, wrote:

“Chapter: the obligatory acts of Ghusl: rinsing the mouth, sniffing water, and washing all of the body ... it is obligatory to wash all that can be washed of the body with the exception of the inside of the eye ... unlike the inside of the nose and mouth, as they can be washed, provided that there is no harm in doing so; rather, this is obligatory, as confirmed by the saying of the Prophet : ‘There is Janaabah (trace of sexual impurity) under every hair; so wet the hair and cleanse the skin.’ It is obligatory to make water reach the roots of the hair and between the hair in the beard and hair of the head for the evidence mentioned above unless it is braided, according to one narration, due to the hardship involved…”

The Hanafi scholar Al-Haskafi said in Ad-Durr Al-Mukhtaar Sharh Tanweer Al-Absaar:

“It is obligatory to wash all that is possible of the body without hardship once, such as the ear, the navel, the mustache, the eyebrows, between the hair of the beard and head hair, even if it is matted, due to the use of the exaggerated form of the verb ‘wash’ in the Quran (فاطَهَّروا ), and the private part that is outward; because it is like the mouth, and not one that is inward. A woman is not required to insert her finger in her vagina (to clean it in Ghusl). This is the fatwa issued in this regard, and it is not obligatory to wash what is hard to wash, like the eye, even if one has applied an impure kohl to it…” 

Allah knows best.