Purification With Water and Earth

A point about the prayer that naturally arises is the ablution — a good point about the prayer. There is a water-cleansing ablution. The word itself is a hateful one, and it is not clear where it comes from: "ablution", "ritual ablutions". It is a Latin word, and it seems to be Catholic — that is probably where it was got from — and it has always bothered many; it is just an unpleasant-sounding word, not that it is something bad. "Brother, do your ablutions." There is a water purification, a ritual purification with water, before one prays. One should use a small amount of water; it is not meant to waste water — it is actually encouraged to use a small amount. It is basically a washing of the face, of the arms up to the elbows, a wiping of the head — not a washing, just a light wiping — and then a cleansing of the feet. The idea is to enter into a ritual state. All religious traditions have this idea of entering into a ritual state of purity before going into the divine space, and that is the idea there.

The proof that it is ritual, and not related to the actual physical — although it does have physical qualities — is that one can use earth to do it in the absence of water. One would use the earth. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said that the earth was given to my community as a place of worship — the entire earth, so that we can worship anywhere on the earth — and as a purification: the earth is seen as a source of purification. And the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, in a tradition related by al-Ṭabarānī: beware of your mother the earth, that you should transgress against her or oppress her, because she will bear witness against all of those who have transgressed against her. There is an idea in the Islamic tradition — the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) literally said it — that the entire earth is raised up on Yawm al-Qiyāmah, the Day of Judgement, and will bear witness. And the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said that rocks will bear witness, that trees will bear witness, that rivers will bear witness against those who did harm to them without just cause.