Islam has placed a great deal of emphasis on being clean and being pure The importance of cleanliness and purity extends beyond societal implications; hygiene also involves numerous religious and spiritual components. I used the words “being clean” and “being pure” in my sentences. Both are covered under Islam’s notion of hygiene. A person may appear clean on a technicality, yet they may not be pure. Similarly, sometimes, the opposite is true. Being clean mostly means that there is nothing on your body, and that there is nothing about you or your clothing that is visibly dirty or filthy. If you have looked after your appearance, then you have attained cleanliness. On the other hand, there is purity; purity implies that we are pure in two distinct ways: one, from any apparent impurity. Islam has classified certain substances as impure. Our body and clothing must be free of those substances. If there is even a little bit of that substance on our body and clothing, we are considered impure. No matter how clean one may seem, our salah will not be accepted, and we will not be allowed to come to the masjid in that condition. Every Muslim should be worried about this aspect of purity. As a result, we have the entire notion of istinjaa, which states that certain things must be taken care of to be clean, and that water must be used to remove impurity, because paper will reduce impurity but not remove it. This is why the use of water is so important. The second issue is that a person may have washed themself, yet a splash of water has spilled on their clothing. We are to blame for this. The prophet (SAW) tells us, “These droplets that sometimes splash on a person’s body or clothes; first, they lead to doubts and suspicions forming in the mind. Keep yourselves pure from urine, because often, doubts come from this. Secondly, many people will be punished in the grave because they did not keep their bodies and clothing clean.”
Once, the prophet (SAW) passed by two graves, and said, “Both of the dwellers of this grave are being punished, even though they could have easily avoided that punishment. For this one, he used to spread baseless rumors and gossip, and the other one, he did not keep himself clean.” This is an important thing for us. Purity is something that Muslims should be very preoccupied with; keeping our bodies clean at all times. This applies for any condition and at any time. Muslims should not be wearing impure clothes and they should not keep impurities on their bodies The second kind of impurity is what we call “hadath.” Even though your body may be clean and pure, you are in a state of impurity. There are two states of impurity: minor states and major states. The first state of impurity, the minor state, is when you are not in a state of wudhu. You can still enter the masjid and recite the Qur’an from memory, but you cannot pick up the Qur’an or pray salah. Then, the major state of impurity is like when a person has a wet dream. This is a major state of impurity, and even if their body appears clean, they cannot recite the Qur’an, enter the masjid, or do any of the other things. A Muslim, whenever they fall into the state of major impurity, will never allow themselves to stay in that state for too long. The only way to purify oneself from that state is ghusl, washing every part of the body so that not a single hair remains dry. Washing the whole body, washing the mouth, and washing the nose. A person will never keep themselves in the state of impurity, and a Muslim will try to avoid staying in the state of minor impurity as well. Why? Because the prophet (SAW) tells us, “Purification is half of Iman. Every time a person performs wudhu, the sins wash off from their body since the last time they perform wudhu, so much so that sins of the eyes come out trickling with the water. Sins come off from beneath your nails from the water.” Muslims try their best to stay in a state of wudhu so that we may always remain in a complete state of purity at all times. Now, we are attracting angels and the good things, and when we are in any impure state, we are attracting the shayateen. Hygiene is not just something that we do for the sake of looking good for other people; because a person may make themselves look good for other people but are still impure and are still najas like many others are. Purity is a necessary aspect of our deen, and this is not something to be shy about or laugh about. Somebody told Imran ibn Hussain (RA) as a mocking joke, “Did your prophet teach you everything, including how to use the bathroom?” He said, “Yes, and these are the etiquettes that he taught us. Islam is a complete and pure way of life.” Today, there are many influential people that are running movements for people to wash themselves after they use the toilet. Can you imagine this? In the end, people will come back and find how pure the teachings of Islam are. We do not have to find out from some third source or from somebody else. We already have all those teachings. We should never allow ourselves to be in a state where our bodies are impure,. As a good habit, whenever our wudhu breaks, we should also try to stay in the state of wudhu. May Allah (SWT) enable us to purify ourselves from outside and inside.
