Us Pure Muslims

You should see the reprimand, or anger, or horror on our faces if somebody touches the Holy Quran without Wuzu (Ablution). The reason is simple.

“That this is indeed a Glorious Qur'an, inscribed in a well-guarded Book, which none can touch except the purified…”

[The Holy Quran, (56) Surah Al-Waqiah, Verses 77-79]

Although there are two interpretations as to the meaning of this particular Holy verse, nonetheless it is a widely accepted endorsement of religion by Fiqh (interpretation of religion) that the Holy Quran shall not be touched without Wuzu, that is, in a complete state of purity of hands and body of a person.

So do many other rituals of our religion make cleanliness a pre-requisite for their performance, including Salah (Prayers), Fasting and Hajj (Pilgrimage). Not only do these things inculcate in us the concept of cleanliness, but also punctuality and discipline. However, rest assured that just like the fact that today Muslims are Muslims only by names and not by character, similarly, and widely speaking, you will not find cleanliness in our persons or homes or cities, but only in our scriptures and words.

You must have heard this widely quoted quote about Islam, ‘Islam is not just a religion, that is, a set of rituals, but it is a complete way and code of life’. Very true! This can be intricately judged from the fact that our Holy Prophet Pbuh even taught us how to use the washroom. It was ridiculed by a Jew in those times and then vehemently defended by Syedna Saman Farsi RA in response.

Surely the qualities of cleanliness, punctuality, discipline and so on, were supposed to flow out from the rituals of religion into our natural disposition and daily lives. Yet, it has not happened so. I do not know what the problem is. Do we Muslims have a very low IQ? Are we slow learners? Are we dumb wits? Cannot we connect theory to practical situations? What is the problem with us? I shall narrate to you a few episodes that I have witnessed in my life and perhaps then you shall understand my antagonism.

I went to a friend’s place. Her two-year-old was sleeping. She had to make him ready to go to a party. She checked him at his private parts. Oops, he had done the pee. That’s okay. But what happened further was certainly not okay. She had checked him at his private parts with her hands. He had been wet. Yet, without washing her hands first, she opened the wardrobe and took out fresh clothes and a diaper. With the same hands she woke her toddler, undressed him, changed his diaper without washing him, dressed him up, applied lotion and powder to him, brushed his hair, dumped the soiled clothes, and then washed her hands…?! I was totally taken aback. Like a fish, I opened my mouth and closed my mouth and opened my mouth and closed my mouth. What should I say to her? What was the point of washing urine-soiled hands afterwards? What about the wardrobe she had touched, and the fresh clothes, and the hairbrush, and just about everything else? She was a university graduate. What could I say to an educated person about the very basic cleaning and hygiene?

I was once attending the graduating ceremony at a Madrassah. It was an open air ceremony. The graduating girls were floor-seated in a spacious marble lounge. The guests were sitting on three sides of the lounge on chairs lined-up. The stage was on the fourth and front side. Lunchtime came and the crowd dispersed from their seating arrangement for Wuzu, Salah and lunch. Sometime later, I happened to be standing at the stage. I happened to notice a woman, with an infant in her arms, stand up in a flurry. She had been sitting having lunch in the middle of the lounge where the graduating girls had been sitting earlier and were to return after lunch break. And her child had done the poo! She quickly pulled off his pajamas and swooped the poo with it. She tried to clean it with two-three twists of the pajamas, while her child was hanging off her arm, dripping. With that messy effort, she made a hurried retreat to God knows where. Obviously the spot had to be cleaned off the traces of poo properly. And it had to be cleaned with soap and water as well. But before I could inform anyone from the administration, the announcement for ‘Lunchtime Over’ was made on the loudspeaker and in seconds the place was swarming with people. With helplessness and disgust I watched as the white-uniform clad graduating girls filed into the lounge, with Hadith Books in their hands, and sat on the lounge floor once again, including the spot messed up with poo. Ugh! So much for the sanctity of Hadith Books! Do you know that in Madrassah, they practice honoring Holy Books to the extent that they do not make their backs towards them, and the classroom seating arrangement is also made accordingly. Students do not sit in simple rows but each row sits in alternate directions, so that the students sit front to front and back to back and nobody’s back is towards the Holy Quran or Holy Hadith. I presume that cleanliness and tidiness is also part of respect? That woman was a villager, but even villagers claim respect and sanctity for Holy Scriptures. In some regions, they consider themselves more puritans than the city folks in this regard. So what about cleanliness for Holy Scriptures and their surroundings? I wonder why that woman had not bothered to put a diaper on her child, in a public gathering at least. Maybe she could not afford it or maybe she thought that it is the invention of the Kafir (non-Muslim) and hence not to used, especially within the sanctity of the Madrassah and the Holy Scriptures.

A nurse was taking care of an elderly patient. The patient was bedridden and on adult diapers. The patient’s attendant suddenly noticed that the patient’s clothing was wet. She informed the nurse that the diaper had leaked and they had to wash her. The nurse came up huffing, checked the clothing for wetness to make sure and then sturdily opened the door with the same hands. Since she was a nurse, the attendant dared to ask, ‘Why have you touched the door-handle with urine-soiled hands?’ She got a reply that I will never forget for the rest of my life. She said, ‘What’s the big deal? Is the door supposed to say Salah?’

Can you imagine our lack of understanding? Can you imagine our mindset? Can you imagine our…no words…

I have an idea. Let’s pee and poo all over the place, except for the mosque, jae-namaz (prayer mat) and the Holy Scriptures, because that is the sum total of what I have understood from people’s comments and practices. You think I am being disgustingly funny and superfluously exaggerating? Well what do you think about the normalcy of men peeing on the roadsides of Islamabad, when they have homes, restaurants and public washrooms in easy access? How is a person supposed to walk down a roadside without being sure that our clothing will not be brushing against plantings sprayed with urine?

Oh but I forgot, we are supposed to be clean and pure, only and solely and specifically only when saying Salah or reciting the Holy Quran. Other than those times, we may as well be dancing in filth.

Okay, then imagine two children running along to their Quran class in the neighborhood. Children run and play and frolic as they go along. Children sometimes bump or fall and sometimes their books and bags fall too. How will you make sure that the bushy sides of the street are clean for the children to walk along their way to the Quran class? How will you make sure that their clothing is free of any filth while they recite the Quran? How will you make sure that filthy hands are not touching the Holy Quran?

For the living style of us Muslims that I have observed is such that, when we are to recite the Holy Quran, we will ceremoniously do Wuzu, making our hands and person pure of any dirt and filth. Then we will open doors which perhaps have been touched by urine-soiled hands. Then we will adorn a topee (cap) or dupatta (veil) which has perhaps been touched by urine-soiled hands. Then we will sit on a carpet spot which has perhaps directly been soiled by urine itself. Because I have even seen that if a child wets a carpet spot, some people do not clean it and simply let it dry in the sun or otherwise, and they religiously quote, ‘Floors become clean upon drying’. Little do they understand that a carpet is not a floor and little do they know that this Fiqh statement is specifically for unmade, mud floors, which have not been bricked, cemented or marbled, because in mud floors, the water-content seeps into the land and the germs on top eventually get killed by sunshine and the germicides in the land itself.

What I am trying to say is that our thoughtlessness, lack of religious-civil education, half-information, irresponsible living style and handling of cleaning situations is so messed up that it makes it almost impossible for one to be sure of purity at any given time and place, for any person…even those who are conscious…because humans do not live in isolation but collectively.

Halo! I am a Muslim and I have just done Wuzu. Can you see the halo around my head and the halo around my hands and the halo around my feet and the halo around my whole person? Forget the trash that you see in my surroundings. Forget the not-visible filth that I have been spreading around in the narrations above. Just focus on my Wuzu and congratulate me for being a ‘pure’ Muslim and let me touch my Holy Quran free of any guilt, but in factuality with impure hands.