My friend gave some pretty explicit advice about different places to make ablutions along the way to and from the locations of various hajj rituals. I guess if you have no idea about ritual ablution that takes a form with water, these might all sound a bit strange. So I might as well elaborate. First, cast this against the desert, and 14 centuries ago. The idea of the daily bath was pretty much limited to people who lived on islands, peninsulas, and in the tropics: places where the rivers already flow underneath.
In the desert and in places like Europe (and much, much later, North America), the daily wash was not heard of for centuries. Into this desert, the Qur’an is revealed, and with it the mandate to take up a state of ritual purity in order to perform the five-times-daily prayer. If you think about it, that really must have been a big thing. I also think that desert location clarifies some of the particulars for that ablution.
First there is the wudu’. In English we use it as a noun, but in Arabic it is in the verb form. So in English we say things like, “I have to make wudu’”; or “I still have wudu’”. Like it is a thing to be possessed. This usage does not invoke the idea of a state of purification, but rather emphasizes how much goes into the performance of the ablution itself.
The water must have a fresh source, flowing. At the sink, or at specially constructed wudu’ stations, this is just a faucet or tap that opens, allowing the water to flow. But a river will do. In many places in the Muslim world, there used to be wudu’ fountains, which later led to the construction of fountains just for the aesthetics of them.
The basic areas requiring water are the hands; the face; the right arm up to the elbow and the left arm; over the head and hair in the front; the right foot and the left foot (in that order). I say basic because there are gradations of wudu’ performance. But the previous are the mandatory minimum.
The more elaborate, known as the sunnah wudu’, has those same areas wiped over three times. When the face is done, the mouth is cleaned out, and a tiny bit of water is also used to clean the frontmost part of the nostrils. When the head is done, the whole head is wiped over and the ears are done as well. The foot is cleaned all the way up to the ankles.
So yes, it can get to be messy. It doesn’t have to be, but when lots of people are in a hurry to get it done and then join a prayer line—well, you get the picture.
In the United States, the regular sink in a house is difficult to manage the entire elaborate version without considerable effort. So, it is common for local mosques to have a wudu’ station constructed.
These are pretty nifty. For one thing, the faucets are about knee-high. In front of them are low seats made of waterproof materials, like marble or ceramic tile. Then in front of the seat is a long drain allowing the flow of water to empty out in a neater fashion. You don’t have to proceed to the prayer without drying off, but some people like this dripping of water, so they don’t. This adds to the mess; even with these really nifty wudu’ stations.
When it’s hot and dry, like in a desert, this ablution must be really, really refreshing. I imagine to linger over the more elaborate sunnah form is a luxury and a delight. But when I lived in Libya, the water used to cut off every day. (Well, the electricity cut off too and without it the water pump didn’t work, so there was no water pumped to the tanks above the apartment buildings.) We would get up for fajr prayer and there was only a dribble. I learned to make the basic wudu’ with less than two tablespoons of water. So I am still the minimalist.
But here’s the thing about purification and the desert, the Qur’an says: if there is no water, then it is possible to do a dry wudu’, called tayyammum. This really reminds me that it is all symbolic. Tayyammum involves placing one’s hands on clean dry soil or sand, and then placing the hands on the face. So it is the intention to purify, and not the use of water per se. I like that option although I have almost never had access to using it, being a minimalist.
Of course the jurists gave us a lot of details about who performs and when to perform and how to perform; so let’s at least look at a few of those.
This lesser ablution must be performed before prayer, before tawwuf at Makkah, before reading the Qur’an as a ritual (of course there are other readings, and I really should talk about that sometime). It is possible to do all of these with the completion of a wudu’ from an earlier performance. But if you have: passed gas; used the toilet, for urine or bowel movement; or if you have lost consciousness, like in a deep sleep; then it must be performed again. Also, they say, when in doubt or if you have forgotten, then it is better do it again, to be on the safe side.
The greater ablution, known as the ghusl, which really only means a bath. This one is needed after sexual intercourse, nocturnal emissions, or any major bleeding, like menstruation. This involves a full body wash from head to toe, and the sunnah wudu’ somewhere in the process. After years of this ritual it becomes second nature, and I always shower and end with the wudu’, washing my feet last and then stepping out of the tub. It’s a habit now.
It is also a habit for me to wash with water in addition to drying with toilet paper every time I use the toilet. This is known as istinjaa’. In my fundamentalist days, I used to carry my own little cosmetic bottle to fill at the sink before entering a public toilet outside of the Muslim world. But in my minimalist old days, I may suffer the loss, but I manage without it.
That’s why I love bathrooms in the Muslim world, which tend to have this nifty little hose attached to the toilet, or just next to the toilet paper dispenser. Personally I’m not happy with the places where you have to choose either to sit on a sit-down toilet with toilet paper provided, or hunker over one of those seatless toilets without toilet paper provided just so you can get the little istinjaa’ hose attached. You know me, I’m not much for the “either/or” prescription.
Now the Arabic word used to describe this states and acts of purity is taharah. This is where things can get a bit stretched. For example, circumcision is also called taharah. Male circumcision is standard, as with most Abrahamic traditions. The procedure for male circumcision differs whether performed at birth or after several years. Actually the after several years option seems to dominate, and it becomes a rite of passage; although again, how this came to be so is not always consistent. So like anything else, there is a minimal religious mandate, and then there are cultural variants.
The logic is not consistent, however, when it is used about female circumcision. So the practice is not consistent either. It is popular in parts of Muslim Africa, and in parts of Muslim Southeast Asia, but almost unheard of in the Gulf region, and in South Asia. Clearly there is more to it than religious interpretation, especially when it goes from a symbolic cutting of the tip of the clitoris to a more invasive removal of the labia major. Cutting itself has no purification value, ever, anywhere, in the rituals of purification; so clearly this is outside of Islam and into Muslim interpretations and cultures.
In other words, there is no commandment to cut on women like this, and therefore the campaigns to eradicate the practice have been twofold. One: to disassociate it with the religion of Islam, and two: to find grassroot means to stop the practice. Many such campaigns have been successful. The thing is, in parts of Africa, these practices are tied to identity, and to the control of women—so the first part of the campaign has been most useful in the context of Muslims. Still it needs multiple strategies when it comes to cultural practice and the control of women. It also needs multiple levels of advocacy.
Finally, since I think next time I will say things about reading the Qur’an, there are mixed opinions about whether one has to be in a state of ritual purity to read the Qur’an or even just to touch it. This is again because of the things associated with the word taharah. The Qur’an says none will touch except the muttataahirun. There are some who interpret this to mean those who are in a complete and undeterred state of purity, and this can only be angels. They justify this by the words used before this statement which refers to the Qur’an as a pre-text lawh-al mahfuz, the sacred tablet. And for this we really need to say something more about reading the Qur’an, so next time.
