BODILY FUNCTIONS

Now Muhammad takes us to the toilet.  He forbids his followers �to face the qibla [i.e., toward the mosque at Mecca] at the time of excretion or urination, or cleansing with right hand or with less than three pebbles� (504).

Cleansing after excretion must be done an �odd number of times� (460), and one must not use �dung or bone� (505) for this purpose.  There is a story explaining why the use of bones and dung is forbidden.  Muhammad once spent a night with jinns (genii) reciting the QurAn to them.  When they asked him about their provision of food, he told them: �Every bone on which the name of Allah is recited is your provision.  The time it will fall in your hand it would be covered with flesh, and the dung of the camels is fodder for your animals.� He therefore told his followers: �Don�t perform istinjAwith these things for these are the food of your brothers� (903).

He also tells his followers: �When anyone amongst you enters the privy, he must not touch the penis with his right hand� (512).

�Aisha tells us that the �Messenger of Allah loved to start from the right-hand side in his every act, i.e., in wearing shoes, in combing, and in performing ablution� (515).

author : ram swarup