Cleanliness Is Half of Faith

Wuḍūʾ carries other names in Arabic — ṭuhūr, ṭahārah — and there are a good many hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him), and āyāt from the Qurʾān, that treat of it directly. Allah (swt) says:

Fīhi rijālun yuḥibbūna an yataṭahharū wa-llāhu yuḥibbu al-muṭṭahhirīn: in it are men who love to purify themselves, and Allah (swt) loves those who purify themselves. The verse is speaking of the people of Masjid Qubāʾ, and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), on first hearing it, did not grasp its meaning; he came and asked the people of Qubāʾ directly what was so special about them, that Allah (swt) should single them out this way, as a people of cleanliness — what did they clean, that others did not? Their answer was that it was simply a habit, a custom, a tradition passed down through the generations: each time they went to the bathroom, for the lesser need or the greater, water was always used to cleanse.

Allah (swt) loves those who purify themselves; the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says elsewhere, buniya al-dīnu ʿalā al-naẓāfah, this dīn of ours is built firmly upon cleanliness — cleanliness is its foundation. And he says, miftāḥu al-ṣalāti al-ṭuhūr: purification is the key that opens ṣalāh; without this ṭahārah, without this wuḍūʾ, there is no ṣalāh at all — it should not even be attempted. And in Sūrat al-Māʾidah, the same verse that opens with the command to wash closes with its own reason: mā yurīdu Allāhu li-yajʿala ʿalaykum min ḥarajin wa lākin yurīdu li-yuṭahhirakum wa li-yutimma niʿmatahu ʿalaykum laʿallakum tashkurūn. Under no circumstances does Allah (swt) wish any hardship or difficulty upon anyone; rather, Allah (swt) wants to complete His favour — He wants purification, because He wants His niʿmah completed. And once more, in a different hadith: al-ṭuhūru shaṭru al-īmān, cleanliness is half of faith; al-naẓāfatu mina al-īmān.