BATH (Ghusl)

For the exercise of prayer, the whole body must be washed to absolve it from uncleanliness after certain acts: menses, puerperium, coitus, and pollutio nocturna.  This practice is derived from the QurAnic verse: �If you are polluted, then purify yourselves� (5:6).

There are over two dozen ahAdIs on the subject of Muhammad�s own custom in this regard.  �Aisha says: �When Allah�s Messenger bathed because of sexual intercourse, he first washed his hands; he then poured water with his right hand on his left hand and washed his private parts . . . � (616).

Muhammad�s practice was that after the sexual intercourse, �sometimes he took a bath and then slept, and sometimes he performed ablution only,� postponing the bath till the end of the night before the morning prayer.  When �Aisha reported this to the narrator of this hadIs, his pious reaction was: �Praise be to Allah Who has made things easy� for the believers (603).

The same obligation lay on women.  One Umm Sulaim went to Muhammad and asked him: �Is bathing necessary for a woman when she has a sexual dream?� Muhammad replied: �Yes, when she sees the liquid [vaginal secretion].� Muhammad�s wives were scandalized when they learned that Umm Sulaim had put a question to the Prophet which suggested that a woman too could have a sexual dream.  �You humiliated the women,� they told her (610, 611).

author : ram swarup