Eclipse, Need, and the Last Wish of the Condemned

It is mustaḥabb to make ghusl at an eclipse of the sun or of the moon, exactly as the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) himself did, and it is mustaḥabb before Ṣalāt al-Istisqāʾ, the prayer offered specifically for rain. It is likewise recommended before Ṣalāt al-Khawf, prayed wherever there is a real and absolute fear present in the heart — a change first into a clean setting, then ghusl, then two rakʿāt, and refuge sought directly in Allah (swt) — and before Ṣalāt al-Ḥājah, prayed whenever something in particular, something genuinely and specially needed, is being asked of Allah (swt): ghusl first, then two rakʿāt of ṣalāh, hands raised afterwards, and the request put directly to Allah (swt) from the heart. The same is recommended before Ṣalāt al-Tawbah, prayed on making repentance, and on returning from any long journey — coming back from a trip to Sydney, say, and taking ghusl on arrival home, is also sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him).

Even a person condemned to execution under Islamic law — whatever the method, and this need not even be a state actually enforcing sharīʿah for the principle to apply — asked, as the time finally comes, what his very last wish might be, may simply say: "My last wish is to take a shower." This too is sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and recommended even in such extremity. Ghusl is recommended, too, after certain kinds of cupping, though by no means after every kind. Where the cupping performed has drawn blood, water should not be allowed to touch the treated area for a couple of days afterwards, since the open pores it leaves behind, through which the impure blood was drawn out, could otherwise easily become infected — this is not a highly recommended thing to risk. Where the cupping involves no blood at all, simply the drawing of the skin through some other means, for the sake of relaxation alone, there is no difficulty whatsoever in making ghusl straight afterwards; it is, in that case, a good thing to do.

There is not a single aspect of human life — personal, public, private, societal, familial — that Islam leaves genuinely untouched, and personal hygiene stands near the very root of it: physical hygiene first of all, and, no less than this, the hygiene of the spirit running alongside it. Time itself is sworn by in closing: