Twenty-Three Great Objectives of Building the House of Allah — Page 118
119 is to fulfil this objective. The reason for this is that the Sacred Mosque, keeping of the objectives in view, perfection of favour and purification of souls and the means thereof are all the things which have been discussed in these two verses. Though these verses from surah Al-Baqarah make mention of general purification but stress has been laid particularly on spiritual purification and purification taught by the faith. In verse 7 of surah Al-M a ’idah, Allah the Almighty says: 'And if you be unclean 58 , purify yourselves by bathing. ' The verse, therefore, teaches that it is essential in Islam to keep your body purified and clean. For this very reason the Holy Prophet sa has expounded in great detail on cleanliness of the body, clothes, houses, one’s surroundings, mosques, tongue, ear, eye and nose etcetera. I would not like to go into detail of this teaching at present, nor is it possible for me for the time being. In any case, a perusal of the Holy Quran leads us to the conclusion (There’s no denying it) that as external cleanliness and purification of soul has been emphasized in the Quranic shariah it has not been emphasized in any faith of old, not even a hundredth, or probably a thousandth part of it. Thus, the objective discussed in the word (purify) was fulfilled by the advent of the Holy Prophet sa and he has made the achievement of this objective possible for the Muslim umma. For, he guided us to every path which leads to cleanliness, and explicitly explained to us every teaching that was related to cleanliness and purification, and simplified