The Place of Cleanliness in Islam

Cleanliness and purification, in Islam, is not merely an essential condition for the performance of an act of worship like prayer, recitation of Qur'an and Tawaf , but as the Qur'an and the traditions tell, it constitutes a permanent department of Faith and possess a significance of its own as well.
It is set forth in the Qur'an:

Truely Allah loveth those who turn unto Him, and loveth those who have a care of cleanliness. (AI-Baqarah 2:222)

Besides, in praise of the residents of Quba, the Qur'an says:

"Where in are men who love to purify themselves. Allah loves the purifiers. " (At-Tawbah 9: 108)

One can imagine from these two verses what importance cleanliness enjoys in the Islamic scheme of things In the same way, the first Tradition we are going to quote from Sahih Muslim shows that cleanliness is not only a tenet and requirement of Islam but, also, forms a principal branch of it. Another hadith teams cleanliness as a half of faith.
The mentor of mentors, Shah Waliullah (R.A) remarks in his monumental work, Hujjatullah-il-Baligha

"By His special grace, the Almighty has explained to me the truth that the path of felicity for giving the call of which the Prophets were raised up, and which is called Shari'ah, consists of many chapters and there are tens and thousands of commands under each chapter, all these can be assembled, in spite of their vast multiplicity under the four fundamental headings 'Cleanliness', 'Fear of Allah', 'Genorosity' and 'Justice'.

Proceeding. he explains the meaning of each of the titles indicated above from which it distinctly follows that the Shari'ah, on the whole, is divided into these four parts.

Here we shall summarise only the part of Shah Waliullah's Hujjah in which he expounds the significance of cleanliness. A right-minded person, it reads, whose heart is not ruled over by bestial urges and filthy propensities feels a peculiar type of uneasiness and gloom within himself when he is involved in an impurity or seized with a strong desire for defecation or urination or has just had sexual intercourse. On the other hand, when he comes out of this state i.e., gets done with the urge for a natural evacuation and purifies 'himself after it, or if he has copulated,
takes a bath, changes his clothes and applies perfume, the feeling of discomfort and depression disappears his cheerfulness returns and he is in good spirits again. The former state is called hads (i.e. impurity) and the latter, Taharah (i.e. cleanliness). People who possess a wholesome disposition and whose natural instincts are sound realize clearly the difference between the two states. They instinctively dislike the condition, of impurity and find the other one, i.e., of cleanliness and purification agreeable. The state of the cleanliness of the human spirit bears a close resemblance to the state of the celestial world, i.e., of the angels because they are eternally free from animal impurities and remain happy and at ease owing to the heavenly state of feeling, and it is for this reason that solicitude for perpetuity of cleanliness, to the extent to which it is possible, enables the soul to attain angelic heights and profit from the celestial world through inspiration and revelation. On the contrary, when a person is sunk in the state of uncleanliness and impurity, he develops a resemblance and affinity with the devils and a typical susceptibility is created within him of responding to satanic desires and passions'.

It is, thus, evident that cleanliness or purity and uncleanliness or impurity are the names of the two states of the soul or moral and spiritual being we have just mentioned and what we call as such are their causes and origins. The Shari'ah, in fact, deals with them and prescribes necessary rules and regulations. Purification has rightly been described as one-fourth of the Shari'ah.

Shah Waliullah further, writes:

"Cleanliness is of three kinds. One. purification from impurity (i.e., to attain purity or cleanliness, by taking a bath or performing ablution in states in which they become necessary or desirable according to the Shari'ah); two, to cleanse one's body, dress or place from an apparent impurity or filth; and, three: to remove the dirt or grime that collects in various parts of the body, such as, the cleaning of teeth and nostrils, the pairing of nails and the removing of the hair below the navel".

[Excerpt from Maariful Hadith by Maulana Mohammad Manzoor Nomani - Translated by Mohammad Asif Kidwai]