Steps to Exercise — Page 17
- 17 - “Cleanliness is half of your Religion. ” For the cleanliness of the body, Islamic teaching is described briey in the next section. Protection of the Body from Filth and Foulness The Holy Prophet of Islam has reminded us in so many ways how to protect our body from foulness and impurity that no Muslim can ignore it. On one occasion, the Holy Prophet said, “I was shown a man suffering the torture of hell just because he never protected his body from splashes of urine. ” Therefore, he has made it compulsory for every Muslim to: Wash his body with water or, if water is not available, with soil or clay after relieving himself. Avoid, as much as possible, touching the lth. Use only his left hand for this purpose. Clean his hands thoroughly afterwards with water or soil. Although these may seem small matters, but as far as I know, no religion goes into such details for its believers; nor has man been able to learn these matters on his own during his evolution. In spite of all the boasts of progress and civilisation, Christian Europe is still ignorant of cleanliness with water and considers it sufcient to use dry paper. Not only this, but also there is no concept of cleansing after passing water. Because of these practices, some parts of their clothes become bundles of stench and the modern medical experts keep drawing their attention to this fact. These bad habits are the reasons for many diseases. Although it seems insignicant, their civilisation has not learnt the virtues of differentiating between the work of the left and the right hand. Some Further Precautions Islam not only restricts the use of left hand for purication after the call of nature, it reserves the left hand for handling of all lth and foulness. Hence, a Muslim always uses his left hand to pick up anything suspicious or to clean his nose. There is great wisdom in this practice. This way, the right hand is kept clean and is dissociated from all dirty and unclean objects; and the right hand can be used for eating or handling other pure things without any worry. These seemingly small injunctions draw a beautiful sketch of basic principles of health and hygiene. It is a well known fact that the hands serve as carriers and transfer the dirt and germs to foodstuff and eatables thus causing the spread of many illnesses. In the rst instance, • • • •