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As a universal religion born initially in
the harsh deserts of Arabia to complete the message of former
prophets and convey the divine revelation in its last testament (the
Quran),
Islam ascribes the most sacred qualities to water as a life-giving,
sustaining, and purifying resource. It is the origin of all life on
earth, the substance from which Allah (God) created man (Quran
25:54).
Water is the primary element that existed
even before the heavens and the earth did. Allah Almighty says what
means,
And it is He who
created the heavens and the earth in six days, and his Throne
was upon the waters. (Quran 11:7)
The water of rain, rivers, and fountains
runs through the pages of the Quran to symbolize Allah's
benevolence. Allah also says what means,
He sends down
saving rain for them when they have lost all hope and spreads
abroad His mercy. (Quran 11:7)
At the same time, the believers are
constantly reminded that it is Allah Who gives sweet water to the
people, and that He can just as easily withhold it. He Almighty also
says what means,
Consider the
water which you drink. Was it you that brought it down from the
rain cloud or We? If We had pleased, We could make it bitter.
(Quran 56:68-70)
In this verse the believers are warned that
they are only the guardians of Allah's creation on earth; they must
not take His law into their own hands.
Saving Water
"Cleanliness is half of faith,"
Muhammad tells his Companions in one of the hadiths. These
well-known and oft-repeated words reveal not only the central
importance of purity and cleanliness, but also the essential role
water plays in Islam. Purification through rituals ablutions is an
obligatory component of the Islamic Prayer ritual; Prayers carried
out in an impure state are not valid. This means Muslims are obliged
to carry out ritual ablution before each of the five daily Prayers.
In addition, a more thorough ritual is required on specific
occasions.
Muhammad urged moderation and thriftiness in
the use of water during ablution. He warned that each step of the
ritual ablutions should not be performed more than three times
before each Prayer; Muhammad himself washed each part only two or
three times without ever going beyond three, even if water supplies
were abundant. Commentators add, "The men of science disapprove
of exaggeration and also of exceeding the number of ablutions of
Muhammad."
Islam also offers advice for times of
scarcity, using Muhammad's actions as a guideline. One day when
Muhammad was traveling through the desert with his Companions, his
wife Aishah lost her necklace. They spent time searching for it and
when Prayer time came, the company was nowhere near a water source.
It was then that Allah revealed the ritual of dry ablutions to
Muhammad:
"O you who
believe … if you are sick or on a journey … and if you can
find no water, then have recourse to clean dust and wipe your
faces and your hands with it." (Quran 4:43)
Clean earth can thus be used as a substitute
for water in exceptional circumstances. Indeed, Muhammad
acknowledged the pure nature of earth when he said,
The earth has
been created for me as a mosque and as a means of purification.
Water in Islamic Law
The harsh desert climate of Arabia, the Near
East, and Saharan North Africa makes water a highly valuable and
precious resource. Islamic Law goes into great detail on the subject
of water to ensure the fair and equitable distribution of water
within the community.
The word for Islamic law, shariah, itself is
closely related to water. It is included in early Arab dictionaries
and originally meant "the place from which one descends to
water." Before the advent of Islam in Arabia, Islamic law was,
in fact, a series of rules about water use. The term later was
technically developed to include the body of laws and rules given by
Allah.
Water is a gift from Allah. It is one of the
three things that every human is entitled to: grass (pasture for
cattle), water, and fire. Water should be freely available to all,
and any Muslim who withholds unneeded water sins against Allah:
No one can
refuse surplus water without sinning against Allah and against
man.
The hadiths say that among the three people
Allah will ignore on the Day of Resurrection there will be:
The man who,
having water in excess of his needs refuses it to a traveler.
Water in Images of Islamic Paradise
The Quranic metaphors in which water is used
to symbolize Paradise, righteousness, and Allah's mercy are quite
frequent. From the numerous Quranic references to cooling rivers,
fresh rain, and fountains of flavored drinking water in Paradise, we
can deduce that water is the essence of the gardens of Paradise. It
flows beneath and through them, bringing coolness and greenery, and
quenching thirst. The believers will be rewarded for their piety by
Rivers of
flowing water; and rivers of milk unchanging in taste, and
rivers of wine, delicious to the drinkers, and rivers of honey
purified (Quran 47:16).
The water in Paradise is never stagnant; it
flows, rushes, unlike the festering waters of Hell. The Quran also
equates the waters of Paradise with moral uprightness:
In the garden is
no idle talk; there is a gushing fountain (Quran 88:11-12).
The many specific statements about the
topography of Paradise in the Quran led to many attempts to map
Paradise. Throughout history, Muslim rulers from Moorish Spain to
Persia sought to reproduce the image of Paradise in the design of
their palace gardens, creating elaborate water features, pools, and
fountains. The gardens of the Alhambra in Spanish Granada, the Bagh-é-Tarikhi
in Iran's Kashan, and the gardens of the imperial palaces in
Morocco's Marrakesh all testify to this desire to emulate Quranic
Paradise on earth. All are designed around water features and
fountains that have been subtly woven into the layout of the
beautiful parks, hence combining water and the beauty of natural
landscape to fill the human soul with faith, joy, and happiness.
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