Cleanliness – is it really what you think it is?
It was a Friday, the sun had risen to the middle of the horizon. As a prescribed duty I joined the congregation who were already on bended knees towards God. The imam spoke about cleanliness and how Muslims should cleanse themselves made reference to the verses which are translated as follows: “… Within it are men who love to purify themselves; and Allah loves those who purify themselves. (Quran 9:108) ”
Naturally, most of us consider the act of cleanliness and purification only in a physical sense like washing one’s hands and face or all over one’s body or even keeping the environment clean. There are many verses and hadith which rightly advocate cleanliness in this manner. However, the message has deeper connotations than we might imagine.
As a matter of fact, I have actually dreamt about the interpretation of these verses in a similar context. The dream made me realise that it doesn’t solely refer to physical cleanliness but also to spiritual cleanliness.
I felt embarrassed in the presence of God, as I do not feel comfortable with my own deeds and purification in spiritual aspects. In fact, I could call myself a person who is not able to balance his heart and mind; a person who simply shares the same infection of the multitudes in today’s world.
What do these verses refer to then? What is at the heart of this message which has been presented to us? What do we mean with real cleanliness? Or how are we going to go about purifying ourselves? Soon after deep reflection on this, myriad questions started storming through my mind creating giant waves as they wash through my consciousness. I then tried to answer each question slowly in the calm waters of contemplation upon these verses.
In short, cleanliness could be thought of in two aspects: the one is physical and the other spiritual. The former is apparent and common-sense, everyone is aware of the necessity of cleanliness as one is taught from an early age, however, I am more interested in the latter.
The mind and thoughts of a person is the reflection of their heart and soul, and in turn the content of our minds are reflected in our behaviour. Therefore, the purity of human beings could be first observed through their actions. Righteous actions are a sign of a pure mind and hence a pure soul, on the contrary mischief indicates the polar opposite.
In this cynical world it is indeed difficult to stay pure and remain as innocent as a child, but nothing keeps us away to battle against impurity. Imagine the hard drive of a computer which has been infected with a virus, whatever you save within it will be corrupted regardless of its size or quality. The ill-mannered personality is a result of similar viruses that corrupts our hearts and minds. We first need to clear or format the hard drive and use an anti-virus programme before adopting a pure nature.
The format is very simple in words but quite difficult in practice. Despite our human nature and characteristics we have to get rid of backbiting, cheating, dishonesty, holding a grudge, hatred, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all kinds of ill-feelings that paralyze the mind and soul. I understand the difficulty of accomplishing this but in spite of anything I claim its possibility, as we have examples of great personalities who achieved it. By including myself in the readers’ list, I would like to call upon everyone to read about the ‘companions’, here we will witness great souls who have buried their pre-Islamic habits into the soil with the light of the Quran.
Next is a steady return to our own sources which could bring peace to our inner and outer world with wisdom. Listen to them like those revealed to our prophet (p.b.u.h) and his companions. Try to make sense of them and experiment by imitating their examples through your actions. This is all we need to do. Do you think this is achievable? Isn’t this our ultimate purpose: to perform what we are prescribed to perform and to await the final awards granted to us in the heavens? So why not?
The protection (or anti-virus) is directly related to how much we repent, the number of seconds we remember God, the salvation we get, the blessings we receive and as we do this the less we will indulge in sins. The level of purification and cleanliness will become outwardly visible to the extent that we repent. Eventually cultivating a pure nature will become easier day by day once you start taking steps towards God, prayer by prayer and repentance upon repentance.
So, let’s start cleaning up! Let’s allow ourselves to undergo a deep cleanse that will make us better human beings both in thought and practice.
I hope, one day, we could truly realise the purity of our own sources and reflect upon them, so that this world would be a better place for all of humanity.