BATHING AFTER A SEMINAL EMISSION

There are a dozen ahAdIs (674-685) on the subject of bathing after a seminal emission.  Once Muhammad called out an ansAr who was in the midst of sexual intercourse.  �He came out and water was trickling down from his head.  Muhammad said: perhaps we put you to haste.  The man said yes.  The prophet said: When you made haste and semen is not emitted, bathing is not obligatory for you, but ablution is binding� (676).  In another hadIs, Muhammad says that when a man leaves his wife in the midst of an intercourse without having experienced orgasm, �he should wash the secretion of his wife, and then perform ablution and offer prayer� (677).  But when there is a seminal emission �bath becomes obligatory� (674).

Once there was a controversy on this point between some muhAjirs (�Emigrants� or �Refugees�) and some ansArs(�Helpers�).  One of them came to �Aisha for clarification, asking: �What makes a bath obligatory for a person?� She answered: �You have come across one well-informed.� Then she reported what Muhammad had said on the subject: �When anyone sits amidst fore parts of the woman, and the circumcised parts touch each other a bath becomes obligatory� (684).  And on yet another occasion, a man asked Muhammad whether a bath is obligatory for one who parts from intercourse with his wife without having had an orgasm.  The Prophet, pointing to �Aisha, who was sitting by him, replied: �I and she do it and then take a bath� (685).

author : ram swarup