The fourth book is the �Book of Prayer� (SalAt).  It is the longest, with 1,398 ahAdIs divided into 203 chapters.  But in all these pages, one looks in vain for any reference to such problems as self-exploration and self-knowledge, problems of enduring concern for the spirituality of the Indian tradition.  There is not even a remote hint of different men endowed with different natures taking different paths toward a divinity differently figured.  As there is one Allah, one Guide, one Book, there is also one Prayer, caught and fixed in a single formula.

From the titles of the 203 chapters this book contains, one can see that they all relate to the externals: azAn (the call to prayer), postures like bowing, prostrating and rising, the number and times of the different prayers, the place of imAm in the system of prayers, the merits of prayers at different times, the prayer for rain, the prayer for protection against windstorms and other calamities, the prayer relating to the dead, and so on.

author : ram swarup

BATHING TOGETHER

Many ahAdIs narrate how the Prophet and his wives used to bathe together after sexual intercourse.  �Aisha reports: �The Messenger of Allah took a bath from the vessel [which contained 15 to 16 pounds of water].  And I and he [the Prophet] took a bath from the same vessel� (625).  She reports the same idea with more details in another hadIs: �I and the Messenger of Allah took a bath from one vessel and our hands alternated into it in the state that we had sexual intercourse� (629).

Two other wives of Muhammad, Umm Salama and MaimUna, also report that they and Muhammad took their baths together (581, 631).

The translator feels that the practice of the Prophet needs defense from the likely attacks of hostile critics.  He tells us that this bath was quite a modest act.  There were no glaring lights; and though the Prophet and his wives on occasion took a bath from the same vessel, it was not a tub-bath where a couple sit together; moreover, they took their bath in pitch darkness, and thus there was no question of their seeing each other�s bodies (note 538).

author : ram swarup

SINGLE BATH FOR MULTIPLE COITUS

Unlike ablution, the bath need not be repeated after each act of intercourse.  Anas reports that �the Messenger of Allah used to have sexual intercourse with his wives with a single bath� (606); or in the colorful language of TirmizI: �with one bath, the Apostle walked over all his women� (vol. I, hadIs 124).  The translator explains: �The holy prophet did not take a bath after every intercourse; he simply performed ablution and took a bath at the end� (note 514).

author : ram swarup

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