“A Muslim’s soul, body, home, and environment should always be clean as if the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) might come to visit at any time.”
Islam persistently expresses the significance and necessity of cleanliness. Allah the Almighty praises the believers, who pay attention to material and spiritual purity, in the Qur’an saying:
اِنَّ اللهَ يُحِبُّ التَّوَّابِينَ وَيُحِبُّ الْمُتَطَهِّرِينَ
“Truly Allah loves those who turn unto Him, and loves those who have a care for cleanness.” (al-Baqara 2; 222) Allah’s Messenger (pbuh) invited his followers to observe the manners of purification not just through his exemplary actions but also by his sayings and advices such as: “Cleanliness is half of faith” (Muslim, Tahara, 1) “Allah is pure and He loves purity” (Tirmidhi, Adab, 41) “purification is the key of prayer” (Abu Dawud, Salat, 73).
Material cleanliness means to get cleansed from the visible filth and the things which are accepted as legally impure. Spiritual cleanliness, on the other hand, means to avoid eating illicit food, backbiting, lying. In addition it means to purify the heart from spiritual diseases like grudge, pride, bragging, greed, etc. In short, spiritual cleanliness means to purify the heart from everything other than Allah. In fact material cleanliness aims to achieve spiritual purification; for nothing but a pure heart will save people in the Hereafter. This is stated in the Qur’an as follows:
يَوْمَ لاَ يَنْفَعُ مَالٌ وَلاَ بَنُونَ إِلاَّ مَنْ أَتَى اللهَ بِقَلْبٍ سَلِيمٍ
“The Day whereon neither wealth nor sons will avail, But only he (will prosper) that brings to Allah a sound heart.” (al-Shu’ara 26; 88-89)
In this chapter we will basically deal with material purification.