Steps to Exercise — Page 18
- 18 - Islam does not provide any opportunity for lth to come in contact with the body; in the second instance, by the continuous use of water to wash it helps to keep the body clean all the time. Having reserved one (left) hand to handle dirty things, it insists that the hands should be cleaned repeatedly. To take the precautions even further, it is forbidden to use the left hand for food and drinks, thus eliminating all possibilities of transfer of any contamination. With all the injunctions to keep your right hand clean from all contaminations, it is still possible that the right hand may inadvertently come in contact with some unclean parts during sleep. To avoid this, the Holy Prophet of Islam has put great emphasis on cleaning the right hand specially after waking up and has forbidden handling any utensil without washing the hands rst. To further reduce the possibility of any lth sticking to the body, the Holy Prophet has ordered to shave all hair from the parts that may retain contamination. Trimming of nails is also based on this wisdom. Because of ignorance of this Islamic education, the Europeans become victims of various foul odours and their society has remained unable to learn these trivial matters. Sometimes out of ignorance, Europeans arrogantly claim that by insisting on these small issues which a person can learn by himself shows that Islamic teaching is only meant for uneducated Arabs. The fact is that even today’s civilised man needs to learn from the Islamic teachings just as much as the uneducated desert Arab did fourteen hundred years ago. Dental Cleanliness Let us consider dental hygiene! In spite of the invention of many types of toothpastes and toothbrushes, human beings are still unaware of the etiquettes of cleaning the mouth without which there is no guarantee of mouth hygiene. Although civilisation has taught people that teeth should be white and has habituated many to use toothpaste in the morning; they have not been able to learn the practice of total mouth hygiene. Total mouth hygiene cannot be maintained without thoroughly rinsing the mouth after every meal as well as ve times a day before the daily prayers. How strongly the Holy Prophet has insisted on the subject of mouth hygiene, can be judged by the following Traditions. Hadhrat Abu Huraira narrates that the Holy Prophet said, “If I had not thought of hardship that may be caused to my followers, I would have ordered them to say their Isha’a prayer a little late, but simultaneously I would have commanded them to brush their teeth before every prayer. ” (Bukhari and Muslim)