The next book is the �Book of Purification.� It deals with such matters as ablution, defecation, and abstersion.  It relates not to inner purity but to certain acts of cleanliness, physical and ritualistic, that must be performed before reciting the statutory daily prayers.  The main topics discussed in Muslim fiqh (canon law) under this heading are: (1) wuzU, minor ablution of the limbs of the body, prescribed before each of the five daily prayers and omitted only if the worshipper is sure that he has not been polluted in any way since the last ablution; (2) ghusl, the major, total ablution of the whole body after the following acts which make a person junub, or impure: coitus (jimA), nocturnal pollution (ihtilAm), menses (hayz), and childbirth (nifAs); (3) tayammum, the minor purification with dust in the place of water; (4) fitra, literally �nature,� but interpreted as customs of the previous prophets, including acts like the use of the toothpick (miswAk), cleansing the nose and mouth with water (istinshAq), and abstersion (istinjA) with water or dry earth or a piece of stone after evacuation and urination; (5) tathIr, the purification of objects which have become ritualistically unclean.

Some broad injunctions on the subject of purification are given in the QurAn (e.g., verses 4:43 and 5:6), but they acquire fullness from the practice of the Prophet.

author:  ram swaroop