Why We Bathe on Eid and Other Sacred Days
Janaza Etiquette and the Worship of Ritual Bathing on Sacred Days
Summary
Sh. Ali Mashhour begins with an important announcement about the janaza salah (funeral prayer) scheduled for 11:30 that day for a young brother named Gilani, age 29, who was killed in a traffic accident. Sh. Ali Mashhour emphasizes the importance of attending janaza prayers and following the funeral procession, citing prophetic narrations about the rewards of such participation and the community's obligation to support one another. He explains that 40 men without shirk making janaza prayer can result in Allah accepting their intercession for the deceased, though this number may vary based on the community's strength in knowledge and practice.
The main portion of the lecture continues a discussion on instances in which ghusl (ritual bathing) is preferred, specifically focusing on bathing for the days of Eid. Sh. Ali Mashhour uses this teaching moment to discuss an important principle: the distinction between general rulings taught publicly and exceptions that are taught privately to scholars and their students. He explains that teaching exceptions to the masses publicly leads people to rationalize themselves as exceptions to Islamic rules, using examples like women seeking divorce, riba (usury), and insurance. He emphasizes that the Prophet taught generalities publicly and exceptions only in private consultations.
Sh. Ali Mashhour then details bathing for the five major occasions: Friday, the 10th of Dhul-Hijjah (Day of Arafah), Eid al-Adha, Eid al-Fitr, and others, explaining that these baths are acts of worship through exalting the sacred days of Allah. He notes that both men and women should bathe on these days regardless of whether they are attending prayer or leaving home, citing the principle that exalting Allah's sacred times and places is from piety of the heart.
Note: This transcript was generated using YouTube's automatic captioning, with AI-assisted cleanup for readability. It may contain inaccuracies due to background noise, audio quality, or limitations of the transcription software — particularly during Arabic recitation. Listener discretion is advised; please refer to the original video for precise wording.
A brief announcement today after or today at 11:30. So this will be before but today at 11:30 right here in this masid we will be holding the janza salah for our brother Gilani. He was killed in a traffic accident on Friday night. So, , this is brother Ali's son. He's not here, , right now, , probably preparing for this, but he's a young man, 29 years old.
[Silence]
Subhanah. So that will be tonight. Today at 11:30 inshallah the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam tells us whoever makes salat upon his brother for him is a of reward. So this would be a mountain of good deeds of merits and if the person makes janza and then follows the janza to the cemetery and to its end then he will have two. This is very important. This is one of the rights of the Muslim upon us. And we are required to follow the janaza as we would wish that somebody follow our janaza because ultimately we need each other. We need each other's dua. ate.
[Silence]
The prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam tells us that anyone who passes away and 40 men who do not associate anything unto Allah in their worship of he make salat janza over them except that Allah will accept their interession on his behalf. And in other wordings of the narration 100 men and the difference is that the weaker these the community is in sunnah in worship in knowledge the weaker their intercession will be. So some communities it will be 40 men, some communities it will need 50 or 60 or 100 or even more. But the point is is that we should try to attend at least the salah. At least the salah especially in our community is a very small community. It's not big. We don't have janazes every day. Maybe once every few months. So it's good for us to go out of our way even if we lose money to do so. right to go out of our way to at least be here to make salah. Again, that will be today here at 11:30 inshallah. Alhamdulillah.
[Silence]
Continuing in the chapter regarding the instances in which it is preferred preferred not obligatory preferred that a person bathe. How many instances obligate necessitate bathing? Five. And how many does the author mention of you know encouraged instances of bathing? Eight. Eight. Right. And so we are on number five today. Yesterday was number four. We mentioned was burying a disbeliever. And burying a disbeliever doesn't just mean attending a funeral. We're speaking about actually physically burying the body. This instance is highly highly remote in our in our time in our place that somebody would be involved in this. But nonetheless, it is another point that I'd to make before we continue. when we read a book like this and we mention general things, we're mentioning general rulings. Meaning this is the ruling in a general set of circumstances in an ordinary set of circumstances. These are not to be understood under extreme or specific or outlandish circumstances. If a person were to have extreme or atl out outlandish circumstances, what do they do? What do they do? Huh? If a person has something that is out of the ordinary happen to them, what do they do to know how to deal with this issue? Ask Books will never take the scholar's place ever. Ever. Doesn't matter how many books you read. It will never happen. And a scholar will never live his life and give out everything that he has ever. Doesn't matter if he lived five lifetimes, he would not be able to teach or you know give out everything that he has. But the point here that's important is that when we say for instance it is not permissible to go to the funeral of a disbeliever or a person is not to bury a disbeliever etc. This is under what kind of circumstances? Nor normal circumstances. But if a person has an extreme set of circumstances or circumstances that don't match exactly what we mention here then they need to ask right why don't we teach exceptions meaning we teach the rules but we don't teach exceptions to the rules why.
[Arabic recitation]
Are the exception that's why we do not teach the exceptions publicly. Exceptions are taught to scholars and their students. They are not taught to the general masses. Why? Because the general masses are not equipped to judge themselves an exception to the rule. Everyone will think that he or she is the exception to the rule. I'll give you an example. The prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam tells us that a major sin is for a woman to ask for divorce without due right from her husband the without having some extreme circumstances to ask for a divorce. every single woman and we have instances in the sunnah where women have asked for divorce and came to the prophet sallall.aii wasallam and requested a divorce. We teach what the general statements of the prophet sallall.aii wasallam. It is not permissible for a woman to seek divorce without extreme circumstances, extreme violence, extreme right. But are there exceptions to this? Yes. But if we teach those exceptions, every single woman thinks that she is the exception. Everyone. Every single one. These prohibitions are for somewhere someone else. Same thing with men for instance. That's a a common example, right? Another example are issues of issues of necessity. Something is haram, right? Is haram. It is haram. It's haram to take. It's haram to give. It's haram to witness. It's haram to write. Correct. Are there exceptions, very remote exceptions that could exempt a person? Yes. Insurance? Haram. Are there exceptions? Yes. However, if we teach those exceptions, what happens? Every single person thinks that their situation is the exception, right? Because they want to do it. That's the issue. And so the point that is made is that it is incorrect. It is a disservice to teach generally publicly exceptions. That's not the place for it. You'll find the prophet sallall.aii wasallam didn't teach exceptions publicly. He taught generalities publicly and exceptions. When privately when someone comes to ask him particular situation, particular instance, he teaches the exception. Right? And so it's important that if any person has a set of circumstances that are not exactly as we teach here, then that person is to ask, right? they're not to judge for themselves if they are the exception or not. The fifth type of in which it is preferred that a person bathe and this one is common and known to many of us bathing for the two so the first of and the 10th of and the day of which is the 9th of these are days in which bathing is preferred. Why? And encouraged out of exaltation of the time. Just we bathe on Friday, it is an exaltation of the time. Correct?
[Silence]
He says for.
[Silence]
He says collects in his book Albe is a major major scholar of the he is a later scholar meaning in the 4th century and he has a number of books but one of them is and in this book the scholars say listen to this statement they say.
[Silence]
Is a major scholar of the a major scholar of hadith. The scholars describe Albe's work in the Med. They say a he has done a service and a favor to every that comes after him. And he is owed by every she that comes after him except for albe has done a service and a favor and is owed by himself. Why? Because of the work that he did on in collecting all of the narrations and he served the med very very well in his most prominent book. There's a huge book of evidences for all of the and so he narrates a narration in his on the authority of a himself who narrates from Zan. He said a man asked Ali about bathing said bathe every day if you want to. And so the man then said no I'm asking about bathing meaning as an as a worship. And so responded and said worship bathing as a worship on occasions is bathing for the day of jum bathing for the day of bathing for the day of slaughtering and bathing for the day of breaking the fast. So these are five right well there are four actually I said five four the 10th of which is the day of slaughtering and the first of which is bathing this is for men women whether you're going to or not going to whether you're going out or not going out even if a person is ill and they're able, they get up, they walk to the bathroom, they take a ba bath and they come back, they have worshiped Allah by doing this. Why? Because this is a type of exaltation of the days of Allah. Correct? And Allah tells us that whoever exalts the days and the rights and the holy times and places of Allah then that is from the piety of the hearts and that is part of the exaltation of Allah himself.
[Arabic recitation]