22. ISLAM IS A RELIGION OF HYGIENE (NAZAFA)
I noticed that many people tend to neglect their bodies; some do not floss their teeth after eating, some do not wash their hands from oil and fat.
Some rarely brush their teeth, some do not wear kohl in their eyes, some do not remove the hair of their armpits. This negligence and failing to observe personal hygiene leads to a failure in conforming to religion and life.
As for its negative effect on people’s religion, the defect results because religion commands believing men to observe particular etiquettes; to bathe on Friday before attending the Friday prayer because it is a day he meets with people; not to enter the Masjid when having bad breath from eating garlic; to cleanse the edges of the nails and toes and cut them; to cleanse the mouth with the siwak’’ to wear perfume and smell good and so forth.
If these etiquettes and manners are being overlooked or neglected, a person has by this, abandoned what the religion prescribed, whereby in some cases, it may affect the validity of his acts of worship such as in the case when neglecting cleansing the dirt accumulated under his nails will prevent the water of his wudu to reach these parts, hence his wudu becomes void and so does the prayer he prayed with that wudhu.
With respect to the negative effect of this on people’s lives, I have noticed that some of those who overlook personal hygiene harm me when they get close to me to whisper a secret in my ears, while being unaware of the harm they are causing because I annoyingly have to endure the bad smell of their mouths to protect the privacy of the secret they wish to tell. Worse still, some of them notice the bad smell of their mouth vet do not even attempt to cleanse it.
The bad smell of the man also disgusts and turns off the wife who may find it too rude to mention it to him, and so causing her to give him no attention.
Ibn ‘Abbas (radiy Allahu ‘anhuma) used to say, ‘I like to beautify myself for mv wife as much as I like my wife to beautify herself for me.’
The argument of some people, who object that this type of beautification is pretentious and unreal, is baseless and trivial because Allah created mankind in the best stature and the eye enjoys beauty. Looking at the eyes, the eyelashes and the brows and the systematic order of body, will make one realise, with no doubt, that Allah beautified mankind.
The personal hygiene of the Prophet was of the utmost and he constantly smelled good, and so his Companions (radiy Allahu ‘anhum) reported that he would raise his arms until the whiteness of his armpit showed, and sometimes his leg was exposed and appeared very white and clean.
He also constantly cleansed his mouth with siwak and disliked to smell anything but good.
Anas Ibn Malik (radiy Allahu ‘anhu) related: “liven his grey hair looked very good on him.”
The wise mentors always said: ‘Whoever washes his clothes, his worries depreciates and whosever smell is good his intellectuality increases.’
And the Prophet said: “Why do you enter upon me with yellow teeth. You should cleanse your teeth with siwak.”
Furthermore, praying while ensuring the teeth are cleaned with the siwak is deemed better than it someone prayed without doing so.
The wise mentors used to say, ‘Whosoever nails are long, is a miser.’
And the Prophet was known for liking perfume.
Besides, being clean and smelling good makes one likeable and people incline to this kind of a person. The wife will also feel comfortable when the husband is in such a state because women are the partners of men’ and so as the man dislikes his wife to neglect herself, the wife dislikes her husband to neglect himself. And it is possible that the husband can endure what he dislikes in his wife but the wife may not be able to endure what she dislikes in him.
I have witnessed a group of people who claim to be ascetics (zuhhad) whose personal hygiene can be describe as disastrous at least, and that was because they were not disciplined by knowledge (ilm).
As for what some people reported that Dawud al-Ta’i was advised to comb his beard, and he answered that he is too busy to comb it— this was an unexceptional case for which he is excused because he was known for being too overwhelmed by his fear of the Hereafter to look after himself, and if he was in a condition where he is conscious about his appearance, he would have done it. Thus, no one should use the actions of such a person as evidence to the contrary.
Whoever looks into the characteristics (khasa’is) of the Messenger of Allah , he will realise the perfection of knowledge and actions (kamilan fi’l- ilm wa’l-‘amal), therefore everyone should follow his lead and example because he is the evidence (hujjah) of Allah on mankind.
(source: al-Hafiz Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-jawzl [d. 597AH] “CAPTURED THOUGHTS being” a translation of his masterpiece ‘Sayd al-K hatir)
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