Islam is the complete submission and obedience to Allah (God).
Islam places great emphasis on
cleanliness, in both its physical and spiritual aspects. On the
physical side, Islam requires the Muslim to clean his body, his
clothes, his house, and the whole community, and he is rewarded
by God for doing so. Prophet Muhammad 
(pbuh) said, for example:
"Removing any harm from the road is charity (that will be rewarded by Allah)." [Bukhari]
While people generally
consider cleanliness a desirable attribute, Islam insists on it ,
making it an indispensible fundamental of the faith. A muslim is
required to to be pure morally and spiritually as well as
physically. Through the Qur'an and Sunnah Islam requires the
sincere believer to sanitize and purify his entire way of life.
In the Qur'an Allah
commends those who are accustomed to cleanliness:
"Allah loves those who turn to Him constantly and He loves those who keep themselves pure and clean." [2: 22]
In Islam the Arabic
term for purity is Taharah. Books of Islamic jurisprudence often
contain an entire chapter with Taharah as a heading.
Allah orders the
believer to be tidy in appearance:
"Keep your clothes clean." [74:4]
The Qur'an insists that
the believer maintain a constant state of purity:
"Believers! When you prepare for prayer wash your faces, and your hands (and arms) to the elbows; rub your heads (with water) and (wash) your feet up to the ankles. If you are ritually impure bathe your whole body." [5: 6]
Ritual impurity refers
to that resulting from sexual release, menstruation and the first
forty days after childbirth. Muslims also use water, not paper or
anything else to after eliminating body wastes.
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) advised
the Muslims to appear neat and tidy in private and in public.
Once when returning home from battle he advised his army:
"You are soon going to meet your brothers, so tidy your saddles and clothes. Be distinguished in the eyes of the people." [Abu Dawud]
On another occasion he
said:
"Don't ever come with your hair and beard disheveled like a devil." [Al-Tirmidhi]
And on another:
"Had I not been afraid of overburdening my community, I would have ordered them to brush their teeth for every prayer." [Bukhari]
Moral hygeine was not
ignored, either, for the Prophet (pbuh) encouraged the muslims to
make a special prayer upon seeing themselves in the mirror:
"Allah, You have endowed me with a good form; likewise bless me with an immaculate character and forbid my face from touching the Hellfire." [Ahmad]
And modesty in dress,
for men as well as for women, assists one in maintaining purity
of thought.
Being charitable is a
way of purifying one's wealth. A Muslim who does not give charity
(Sadaqah) and pay the required annual Zakah, the 2.5% alms-tax,
has in effect contaminated his wealth by hoarding that which
rightfully belongs to others:
"Of their wealth take alms so that you may purify and sanctify them." [9: 103]
All the laws and
injunctions given by Allah and His Prophet (pbuh) are pure; on
the other hand, man-made laws suffer from the impurities of human
bias and other imperfections. Thus any formal law can only be
truly just when it is purified by divine guidance - as elucidated
by the Qur'an and the Sunnah - or if it is divinely ordained to
begin with - the Shari'ah.
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