Wudhu is known as 'ablution' in English. Wudhu is a ceremonial act of washing and wiping the hands, face, arms, head and feet before praying or touching the text of the Quran. Without wudhu those activities would be void and unlawful.

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
[5.6] O you who believe! when you rise up to prayer, wash your faces and your hands as far as the elbows, and wipe your heads and your feet to the ankles; and if you are under an obligation to perform a total ablution (ghusl janabah), then wash (yourselves) and if you are sick or on a journey, or one of you come from the privy, or you have touched the women, and you cannot find water, betake yourselves to pure earth and wipe your faces and your hands therewith, Allah does not desire to put on you any difficulty, but He wishes to purify you and that He