When is ritual bathing obligatory in Islam?
The Five Instances of Obligatory Ghusl in Islam
Summary
Sh. Ali Mashhour continues his discussion on the chapters of ghusl (ritual bathing) in Islamic jurisprudence, explaining it as one of the great rights and pillars of Islam. He covers five instances where ghusl is obligatory: expulsion of semen, intercourse, conversion to Islam, completion of a woman's menstrual cycle or postpartum bleeding, and on the day of Jumu'ah. Sh. Ali Mashhour provides detailed explanations of each ruling, including the use of sidr (a desert tree with cleaning properties) in bathing, the trimming of nails and hair upon conversion, and the deeper requirements for women's ghusl after menstruation. He addresses scholarly interpretations regarding the obligation of ghusl on Jumu'ah, presenting evidence from the practice of Umar ibn al-Khattab to demonstrate that ghusl on Friday is obligatory despite some scholars viewing it as strongly recommended.
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Alhamdulillah.
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Continuing in the chapters of alus bathing. This is not just any bathing. This of course is religious bathing. It's one of the great rights of Islam. And as a matter of fact, the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam in some wordings of the narration of Gibl listed it amongst the pillars of Islam. This is one of the most differentiating features and one of the great hallmarks that set the believer aside from the disbeliever. We mentioned two so far. The first was hurily the expulsion of sperm or semen and the second which was intercourse. We have three more to go. Number three is when a person becomes Muslim when they enter into Islam the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam made it one of the rights of this great moment of entering into Islam as bathing.
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So when he accepted Islam, the prophet sallall.aii wasallam commanded him to bathe and to use water in sidd. Do we know what sidar is?
[Arabic recitation]
Grows in the desert and it has leaves. They kind of look lemon leaves, a lemon tree, right? And it has cleaning properties. So this is what they used to use for soap. Acid was used for soap. to get something that's honory out, you know, a difficult stain or something, they would use dirt and they would also mix into the water a cider. So they would take these leaves of a cider and they would use it to clean the way that we use soap today. And this is also the sunnah to use a in bathing the dead as the prophet sallall.aii wasallam also commanded. So whenever you see the use of acidiv in narrations with respect to bathing, this is the purpose for it. And sid is a notorious tree for not having any fruit and having thorns. But one of the trees of paradise is what? Right. So, one of the most fruitless trees becomes full of fruits in paradise. The fourth instance and in other narrations, the prophet sallallah.aii alaihi wasallam would command people that accepted Islam new to trim their nails, to trim their hair, to trim their mustache if it is overgrown. , and this is considered kind of a new beginning when a person goes to. So all of this is part of the sunnah along with bathing. The fourth is after a woman's cycle is completed, it's over, or at the end of postpartum bleeding, which is after childbirth, which will never be any longer than 40 days ever. Even if it continues physically, after 40 days, it's no longer nest. After these two instances, the woman must bathe in order to be back in a state of spiritual purity. Either.
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So the prophet Sam told Fatima if your cycle begins then leave off praying. Don't pray, stop praying and then if it completes and concludes then bathe and then pray. And this is something well known amongst the Muslim. It is something that is agreed upon amongst all of the scholars in the Muslim that a woman must bathe at the end of her cycle at the end of her postpartum in order to begin prayer again. And bathing after one cycle after postpartum is a more deep bathing than just Geneva because a woman and a man are not required to take out the braids in their hair for bathing from Geneva. They are h a woman however is obligated to take her braids out at least at the end of her cycle or postpartum when she bathes. The fifth and final instance in which bathing is obligatory is the day of jum. Now notice the wording here the day of jum. You notice the wording. It is not for per se. It's the day of J. This is an important distinction as we will read in the narration. This is upon everyone whether a person is traveling or not, whether a person is male or female, whether a person is ill or or or well, if they're able to bathe.
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Had. Wasam.
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Here we have a narration on the authority of in which the messenger of Allah wasallam said and the narration is in both Bkari and Muslim the he says bathing for Jum or bathing on Jum is an obligation that is binding upon every person of pubescent age meaning anyone over the age of puberty is obligated to bathe on the day of J. Is going to attending Jum obligatory upon everyone of the age of puberty. What's the answer? No. There's people who are traveling. There's people who are ill. There's people females in general, slaves, right? There's a number of conditions for to be obligatory. However, the wording of the narration articulates that bathing is for the day of J and not necessarily for the salah of J. Now many of the scholars have interpreted this narration to be to mean that it is a sunnah that is to be widespread as if it is binding and that binding here is to mean that it is highly recommended and they use as an evidence for this narration. ions that indicate that is still valid even if the person has not bathed. I'll give you an example and his was on the Omar was the Khalifa for how many years? 11 years. 11 years is a long time. But not only that, but he became the Khalifa two years and change after the prophet's death. So if we think about who was in the crowd during his kha, if we were to put a percentage on it, what percentage of the crowd in Medina were companions in those 11 years, very early? Probably 90% maybe 85%, right? A a huge majority. We have major companions there. So the things that Omar says on the meimar are highly important because the other companions are listening and if we have no disagreement from any of these companions this means that it is something that everyone there is agreeing upon. So Omar is on the he's given the walks in and Omar points him out and speaks to him while he's on the and presses him why he's late. Person must be in the masid before the imam gets on the mim. And so he presses him why he's late in front of everyone. Yes. In front of everyone. This is a leader of the Muslim. Why are you late? He said, "I came as soon as I could. I didn't even make." And Omar said, "On top of you being late, you also didn't make." So what do we understand from this exchange? If was invalid without then he would have told him if was unaware he would have told him go back and makeul your salah is not going to be valid without it correct right but he didn't and so the point here of the narration is there's a number of narrations this that articulate that the validity of J meaning it being valid not it being rewarding that's a different thing we're talking about bare minimum valid you are not required to make it again is not built upon salah is built upon we understand that but does that make not an obligation no this is a separate thing this is for the day of Jum and this is for the reward of Jum. So we keep the narration of the prophet as it is and we say what he said. He says is an obligation. Who am I to say? Well, it's not really an obligation. It's actually something that is preferred. I wouldn't want to be the guy to say that we keep his words as they are as he intended them to be. So if we are asked what is the ruling on we say exactly what he said. Foreham.