The relevance of the Islamic principles on cleanliness to contemporary times: focus on hand washing

Abstract

The Qur’an unequivocally declares that it “guides unto the way that is best” Q17:9 this connotes that every way of life that a person decides to take Qur’an guides unto the best of that way. The Qur’an declares thus “O ye who believe! When ye rise up for prayer, wash your face, and your hands up to the elbows,” People all over the world especially medical luminaries are clamouring for washing of hands as a means of checking some communicable diseases. If this is a means of checking ebola for example, one feels that a second look needs to be taken at the concept of cleanliness in Islam with particular reference to washing of hands. It is in this vein that this paper intends to review the Islamic tenets of cleanliness especially as it relates to hand washing which has recently been proven to be not merely a religious dogma, but rather a profound natural law designed by the originator of nature itself. In this age in which everything is measured by its conformity with experimental discoveries the protagonists of this notion have themselves discovered that Qur’anic statements do reveal natural phenomena in its real form. The paper portrays the relevance of Islamic rituals to the mundane life. Moreover, these discoveries should refine the minds and render them dispassionate when making analysis of the role of Islam in proffering preventive solution to diseases. The paper draws inferences from Islamic jurisprudential texts and the wisdom of the divine commandments on hand washing rituals which corroborates the declarations of contemporary medical luminaries on the benefits of hand washing. It then behoves all and sundry to care to read the Qur’an in order to be guided unto the way that is best.

Keywords: Hands, Cleanliness, Washing, Ablution, Hygiene