Cleanliness keeps a very important place in the religion of Islam. Praise be to Allah SWT Who has shown His kindness on His servants and has provided them with cleanliness (wudu). He has made his Light and grace to flow into the hearts for the purification of the inward thoughts. He has provided His servants with the water which is smooth and soft for the washing of the bodies. May Allah be pleased with and have His peace and mercies on Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) who has encompassed the entire world from one end to another with the light of guidance, as well as upon his noble and righteous family - a peace the blessings of which will be a salvation onto us or the day of resurrection and a bulwark unto us against every danger or affliction.
The Prophet SAW said, "Religion was founded on cleanliness" (al-Ghazali). 'Purification is the key to prayer.' (al-Tirmidhi, Tahara: 3). Allah said, "Therein are men who aspire to purity, and God loves the purified." (Surah 9: 109). The Prophet SAW also said, "Purification is one half of belief." (Muslim, Tahara-1). Allah said, "Allah desires not to lay burden onto you, but He desires to purify you." (Surah 5: 9). Imam al-Ghazali explains that through these externals, those who contemplate the fact that the most important thing is the purification of the heart, because, it is very unlikely that the words of the Prophet SAW "Purification is one half of belief" meant that men should polish and clean the body with generous use of water and neglect the heart and leave it stuffed with impurities and filth.
Imam al-Ghazali suggests that purity has four stages: The first stage is the purification of body from the excrements, imupurities, and bodily growth and discharges (arabic fadlah / fadalat). The second stage is the purification of bodily senses from crimes and sins. The third stage is the purification of the heart from blameworthy traits and reprehensible vices. The fourth and final stage is the purification of the innermost self (sirr) from everything except Allah SWT. This last stage is that of the Prophets (May Peace Be Upon Them) and the saints.
In all these stages, the purity is half of the activities it encompasses. For the highest aim of the activities of the innermost self is to have the majesty and greatness of Allah revealed on it. But knowledge of Allah will never be revealed into the innermost until everything except Allah is removed from there. Allah has therefore said, "Say: It is God: then leave them in their past time of cavilling." It is clear that knowledge of Allah and allegiance to another besides Him can not inhabit the same heart and Allah has not created two hearts within him.
As to the activities of the heart, the sole purpose is to decorate it with the praiseworthy traits and doctrines established by the Law. No one who has not cleansed his heart from the opposite, the false doctrines and reprehensible vices, has ever been described by these traits. Hence purification of heart comprises of one half of the activities. This first half is the prerequisite for the second. And it is in this manner that purification of the heart is one half of the belief. In the same fashion, the purification of the bodily senses from the forbidden things is half of the activities they entail and is prerequisite for the second half. Their purification is the first half and their adornment with good works is the second half.
There are different stages of the belief. One attains the higher stage of belief unless he first goes through the lower stage. He will not attain the purification of the innermost self from the blameworthy qualities and will not adorn it with the qualities that are praiseworthy unless he accomplishes first the purification of the heart from the blameworthy traits and adorns it with the praiseworthy. In the same manner, none will attain the purification of the heart from the blameworthy traits or adorn it with the praiseworthy traits unless he first accomplishes the bodily senses from the forbidden things and adorns them with good works. The more precious and noble the desired object becomes the more difficult is the way to its attainment. The longer is the road which leads to it, and greater are the obstacles which block its path. Therefore, one should not think that this can merely be achieved by wishing or by no efforts. The one whose insight fails to distinguish between these four stages shall not perceive them except the lowest which is equivalent to the last and outermost husk of the desired fruit. Therefore, such a person will only concentrate on it and go to the extreme in study of its rules and waste his all time in istinja (abstersion), washing clothes, cleaning his body, and outdoing himself in the use of water, thinking as a result of constant fear with which he is obsessed and of a hallucination which dwells in his mind, that the desired and noble purity comprises only of such outward and external cleanliness. Therefore, he shows his complete ignorance about the way the early Muslims spent their lives: How they spent all their energy and thought of the purification of the heart and were very lenient regarding the body to the extent that 'Umar, despite his high station, has once performed his ablution with water from a jar which belonged to a Christian woman.' Similarly, it was a common practice among early Muslims not to wash their hands from the remains of the fats and foods but instead wipe their fingers off against the arches of their feet without any soap or anything. They used to pray, kneeling and prostrating themselves directly on the ground and walk barefooted in the streets. There were many who slept on earth had nothing between themselves and the earth.
Umar said, "We had no knowledge of Alkali at the time of the Apostle of Allah and our towels were the hollows of our feet: Whenever we ate anything, we wiped our fingers against our feet." After the death of the Prophet SAW, the first four innovations were the use of the sieve (for flour), the use of Alkali (for washing), the use of tables (for eating), and eating to satiety.
The only concern to the early Muslims was the cleanliness of the heart. One of them even said, "To perform prayer with the shoes on is better than performing them without them because when Apostle of God SAW took his shoes off during prayer as Gabriel informed him that they were unclean, and the people present took their shoes off as well, he told them, "Why have you taken off your shoes?"" (Abu Dawood, Taharah: 137).
Such was the lenience of theirs in those matters. Therefore, when Prophet SAW said, "Religion was founded on the cleanliness.", it's main emphasis was to lead to the purification of the innermost self which can be attained after achieving other stages of the purification as well. Too much emphasis on the purification of the body, will lead to the waste of energies and the actual purpose of the cleanliness will be lost.
We pray that Allah SWT helps us achieve the purification of the innermost self. Amen.
The Prophet SAW said, "Religion was founded on cleanliness" (al-Ghazali). 'Purification is the key to prayer.' (al-Tirmidhi, Tahara: 3). Allah said, "Therein are men who aspire to purity, and God loves the purified." (Surah 9: 109). The Prophet SAW also said, "Purification is one half of belief." (Muslim, Tahara-1). Allah said, "Allah desires not to lay burden onto you, but He desires to purify you." (Surah 5: 9). Imam al-Ghazali explains that through these externals, those who contemplate the fact that the most important thing is the purification of the heart, because, it is very unlikely that the words of the Prophet SAW "Purification is one half of belief" meant that men should polish and clean the body with generous use of water and neglect the heart and leave it stuffed with impurities and filth.
Imam al-Ghazali suggests that purity has four stages: The first stage is the purification of body from the excrements, imupurities, and bodily growth and discharges (arabic fadlah / fadalat). The second stage is the purification of bodily senses from crimes and sins. The third stage is the purification of the heart from blameworthy traits and reprehensible vices. The fourth and final stage is the purification of the innermost self (sirr) from everything except Allah SWT. This last stage is that of the Prophets (May Peace Be Upon Them) and the saints.
In all these stages, the purity is half of the activities it encompasses. For the highest aim of the activities of the innermost self is to have the majesty and greatness of Allah revealed on it. But knowledge of Allah will never be revealed into the innermost until everything except Allah is removed from there. Allah has therefore said, "Say: It is God: then leave them in their past time of cavilling." It is clear that knowledge of Allah and allegiance to another besides Him can not inhabit the same heart and Allah has not created two hearts within him.
As to the activities of the heart, the sole purpose is to decorate it with the praiseworthy traits and doctrines established by the Law. No one who has not cleansed his heart from the opposite, the false doctrines and reprehensible vices, has ever been described by these traits. Hence purification of heart comprises of one half of the activities. This first half is the prerequisite for the second. And it is in this manner that purification of the heart is one half of the belief. In the same fashion, the purification of the bodily senses from the forbidden things is half of the activities they entail and is prerequisite for the second half. Their purification is the first half and their adornment with good works is the second half.
There are different stages of the belief. One attains the higher stage of belief unless he first goes through the lower stage. He will not attain the purification of the innermost self from the blameworthy qualities and will not adorn it with the qualities that are praiseworthy unless he accomplishes first the purification of the heart from the blameworthy traits and adorns it with the praiseworthy. In the same manner, none will attain the purification of the heart from the blameworthy traits or adorn it with the praiseworthy traits unless he first accomplishes the bodily senses from the forbidden things and adorns them with good works. The more precious and noble the desired object becomes the more difficult is the way to its attainment. The longer is the road which leads to it, and greater are the obstacles which block its path. Therefore, one should not think that this can merely be achieved by wishing or by no efforts. The one whose insight fails to distinguish between these four stages shall not perceive them except the lowest which is equivalent to the last and outermost husk of the desired fruit. Therefore, such a person will only concentrate on it and go to the extreme in study of its rules and waste his all time in istinja (abstersion), washing clothes, cleaning his body, and outdoing himself in the use of water, thinking as a result of constant fear with which he is obsessed and of a hallucination which dwells in his mind, that the desired and noble purity comprises only of such outward and external cleanliness. Therefore, he shows his complete ignorance about the way the early Muslims spent their lives: How they spent all their energy and thought of the purification of the heart and were very lenient regarding the body to the extent that 'Umar, despite his high station, has once performed his ablution with water from a jar which belonged to a Christian woman.' Similarly, it was a common practice among early Muslims not to wash their hands from the remains of the fats and foods but instead wipe their fingers off against the arches of their feet without any soap or anything. They used to pray, kneeling and prostrating themselves directly on the ground and walk barefooted in the streets. There were many who slept on earth had nothing between themselves and the earth.
Umar said, "We had no knowledge of Alkali at the time of the Apostle of Allah and our towels were the hollows of our feet: Whenever we ate anything, we wiped our fingers against our feet." After the death of the Prophet SAW, the first four innovations were the use of the sieve (for flour), the use of Alkali (for washing), the use of tables (for eating), and eating to satiety.
The only concern to the early Muslims was the cleanliness of the heart. One of them even said, "To perform prayer with the shoes on is better than performing them without them because when Apostle of God SAW took his shoes off during prayer as Gabriel informed him that they were unclean, and the people present took their shoes off as well, he told them, "Why have you taken off your shoes?"" (Abu Dawood, Taharah: 137).
Such was the lenience of theirs in those matters. Therefore, when Prophet SAW said, "Religion was founded on the cleanliness.", it's main emphasis was to lead to the purification of the innermost self which can be attained after achieving other stages of the purification as well. Too much emphasis on the purification of the body, will lead to the waste of energies and the actual purpose of the cleanliness will be lost.
We pray that Allah SWT helps us achieve the purification of the innermost self. Amen.
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