Repentance Bath

Priority: c, Quality: c
From wikishia

Furu' al-Din

Prayer
Wajib: Daily Prayers • Essentials of Prayer • Friday Prayer • Eid Prayer • Al-Ayat Prayer • Funeral Prayer• Istijari Prayer

Mustahab: Night Prayer • Ghufayla Prayer • Ja'far al-Tayyar Prayer

Other types of worship
Fasting • Khums • Zakat • Hajj • Jihad • Enjoining the good • Forbidding the evil • Tawalli • Tabarri

Rulings on Tahara
Wudu' • Ghusl • Tayammum • Najis • Mutahhirat • Tadhkiya • Dhabh

Civil Law
Wikala • Wasiyya • Diman • Kifala • Irth

Family Law
Marriage • Temporary marriage • Polygamy • Divorce • Mahr • Breastfeeding • Intercourse • Sexual gratification • Adopted child • Formula for marriage

Criminal Law
Judgment • Diyat • Hudud • Qisas • Ta'zir • Hoarding

Economic Laws
Bay' • Ijara • Qard • Riba • Majhul al-Malik • Shari'a payments

Other Laws
Hijab • Sadaqa • Nadhr • Taqlid • Foods and drinks • Waqf

See also
Fiqh • Rulings of Shari'a • Manual of Islamic law • Puberty • Wajib • Haram • Mustahab • Mubah • Makruh

Repentance bath or Ghusl al-tawba (Arabic: غسل التوبة) is a recommended ritual bathing, and a practice for repentance to God. According to the fatwas of Shiite jurists, it is recommended to perform a ritual bath for repentance from disbelief, vice acts, and minor sins. Some Sunni scholars believe that it is obligatory to perform a ritual bath for repentance from disbelief.

According to a hadith, Imam al-Sadiq (a) told a person who repented from the sin of listening to songs, which he insisted on for a while, to perform a ritual bath first.

The reason behind repentance bath is a more speedy acceptance of the repentance by God and to serve as a sign of inner purification.

Place

Repentance bath is among the rituals of repentance.[1] It is mentioned in Islamic jurisprudential books in the section on cleanliness as part of recommended ritual baths.[2] Repentance bath is mentioned in some books on Islamic ethics[3] and practical mysticism[4].

According to Sayyid Muhammad Kazim al-Yazdi, the author of al-'Urwa al-wuthqa, some jurists believe that repentance bath is among the ritual baths that are recommended before performing a certain act, just like circumambulation bath, while others believe that it is among the ritual baths that are recommended after doing a certain act, just like the ritual bath for performing solar eclipse make-up prayer.[5]

Recommendation

Repentance bath is sometimes done for repentance from disbelief, and sometimes for repentance from vicious acts and minor sins. There is a consensus over the recommendation of a ritual bath for repentance from disbelief and vicious acts, while there is a disagreement over the recommendation of such bath for repentance from minor sins.[6]

Bath for Repentance from Disbelief

According to Muhammad Hasan al-Najafi (the author of Jawahir al-kalam) (d.1266/1850), all Shiite jurists are of the opinion that the ritual bath for repentance from disbelief—either original disbelief or apostasy—is recommended.[7] The evidence for this includes consensus and hadiths.[8] According to a hadith, the Prophet (s) ordered two newly convert Muslims to perform a ritual bath.[9]

According to al-Shahid al-Thani, a tenth/sixteenth-century Shiite jurist, some Sunni jurists believe that ritual bath for repentance form disbelief is obligatory.[10] In Sunni sources, the bath is referred to as “ghusl al-islam” ritual bath for conversion to Islam).[11] In Christianity, too, one is admitted into Christianity by baptism.[12]

Ritual Bath for Repentance from Vicious Acts

According to al-'Allama al-Hilli (d. 726/1325), all Shiite jurists maintain that ritual bath for repentance from vicious acts is recommended.[13] A vicious act is a major sin or insistence on a minor sin.[14]

Recommendation of such bath is established by consensus and hadiths.[15] According to a hadith, a person who insisted on listening to forbidden songs and decided to repent was recommended by Imam al-Sadiq (a) to perform a ritual bath first.[16]

Ritual Bath for Repentance from Minor Sins

There is a disagreement among jurists over whether ritual bath for repentance from minor sins is recommended.[17] According to Sayyid Muhammad Mahdi Bahr al-'Ulum (d. 1212/1798), most jurists believe that it is recommended.[18] However, jurists like al-Shaykh al-Mufid (d. 413/1022) and Abu l-Salah al-Halabi (d. 447/1055-6) confine the recommendation of repentance bath to major sins.[19]

Reason

Al-Sayyid Muhammad Kazim al-Yazdi (d.1337/1919), the author of al-'Urwa al-wuthqa, believes that the reason behind repentance bath is its more speedy acceptance by God.[20]

Notes

  1. ↑ Group of authors, Mawsūʿat al-fiqh al-Islāmī, vol. 33, p. 67.
  2. ↑ Baḥr al-ʿUlūm, Maṣābīḥ al-aḥkām, vol. 2, p. 507.
  3. ↑ Madanī Shīrāzī, Rīyāḍ al-sālikīn, vol. 4, p. 382.
  4. ↑ Baḥr al-ʿUlūm, Risāla-yi siyr-o-sulūk, p. 213; Husaynī al-Ṭihrānī, Lubb al-lubāb, p. 92.
  5. ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 2, p. 156 and 157.
  6. ↑ Group of researchers, Mawsūʿat al-fiqh al-Islāmī, vol. 33, p. 67.
  7. ↑ Najafī, Jawāhir al-kalām, vol. 2, p. 67.
  8. ↑ Najafī, Jawāhir al-kalām, vol. 2, p. 68.
  9. ↑ Najafī, Jawāhir al-kalām, vol. 2, p. 68.
  10. ↑ Shahīd al-Thānī, Masālik al-ifhām, vol. 1, p. 107.
  11. ↑ Ḥajawī Maqdisī, al-ʾIqnāʿ, vol. 1, p. 45; Ibn Taymīyya, Sharḥ al-ʿumda fī l-fiqh, p. 350.
  12. ↑ Tawfīqī, Āshnāʿī bā adyān-i buzurg, p. 195.
  13. ↑ Ḥillī, Muntahā al-maṭlab, vol. 2, p. 474.
  14. ↑ Shahīd al-Thānī, Masālik al-ifhām, vol. 1, p. 107.
  15. ↑ Bihbahānī, Maṣābī al-ẓalām, vol. 4, p. 92.
  16. ↑ Kulayni, al-Kafi, vol. 12, p. 785.
  17. ↑ Baḥr al-ʿUlūm, maṣābīḥ al-aḥkām, vol. 2, p. 508.
  18. ↑ Baḥr al-ʿUlūm, maṣābīḥ al-aḥkām, vol. 2, p. 508.
  19. ↑ Mufīd, al-Muqniʿa, vol. 1, p. 51; Abū Ṣalāḥ al-Ḥalabī, al-Kāfī fī al-fiqh, p. 135; Ibn Zuhra, Ghunyat al-nuzūʿ, vol. 1, p. 62.
  20. ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 2, p. 156 and 157.

References

  • Abū Ṣalāḥ al-Ḥalabī, Taqī al-Dīn b. Najm al-Dīn. Al-Kāfī fī al-fiqh. Isfahan: Maktaba Imam Amīr al-Muʾminīn (a), 1403 AH.
  • Bihbahānī, Muḥammad Bāqir. Maṣābī al-ẓalām fī sharḥ mafātīḥ al-sharāyiʿ. [n.p]. Muʾssisa l-ʿallāma al-mujaddid al-Waḥīd al-Bihbahānī. [n.p]. [n.d].
  • Baḥr al-ʿUlūm, Muḥammad Mahdī b. Murtaḍā. Risāla-yi siyr-o-sulūk. Edited by Ḥusaynī Tihrānī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn. Mashhad: Nūr Malakūt Qurʾān, 1425 AH.
  • Baḥr al-ʿUlūm, Muḥammad al-Mahdī al-. Maṣābīḥ al-aḥkām. Qom: Maytham al-Tammār, 1385 SH.
  • Ḥajawī Maqdisī, Sharaf al-dīn Mūsā al-. Al-ʾIqnāʿ fī fiqh al-ʾimām ʾAḥmad b. Ḥanbal. Edited by ʿAbd al-laṭīf Muḥammad Mūsā al-sabkī, Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, [n.d].
  • Ḥillī, al-Ḥasan b. Yūsuf al-. Muntahā al-maṭlab fī taḥqīq al-madhhab. Mashhad: 1412-1424 AH.
  • Ḥillī, al-Ḥasan b. Yūsuf al-. Tadhkirat al-fuqahāʾ. Qom: Muʾassisat Āl al-Bayt, 1414 AH.
  • Ḥusaynī Tihrānī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn. Lubb al-lubāb dar siyr-o-sulūk-i ʾulī l-ʾalbāb. Mashhad: Intishārāt-i Allāma Ṭabāṭabāʾī, 1419 AH.
  • Ibn Zuhra al-Ḥalabī, Ḥamzat b. ʿAlī. Ghunyat al-nuzūʿ ilā ʿilmay al-uṣūl wa al-furūʿ. Qom: Muʾassisat al-Imām al-Ṣādiq, 1417 AH.
  • Ibn Taymīyya, Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm. Sharḥ al-ʿumda fī l-fiqh. Riyadh: Maktabat ʿUbiykān,1412 AH.
  • Group of authors. Mawsūʿat al-fiqh al-Islāmī Ṭibqan li madhhab Ahl al-Bayt. Qom: Muʾassisa Dāʾirat al-maʿārif al-fiqh al-Islāmī, 1423 AH.
  • Kulaynī, Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb al-. Al-Kāfī. Qom: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 1429 AH.
  • Madanī Shīrāzī, Sayyid ʿAlīkhān. Rīyāḍ al-sālikīn fī sharḥ al-Ṣaḥīfa Sayyid al-Sājjidīn. Qom: Muʾassisat al-Nashr al-Islāmī, 1435 AH.
  • Mufīd, Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-. Al-Muqniʿa. Qom: Daftar-i Intishārāt-i Islāmī, 1410 AH.
  • Najafī, Muḥammad Ḥasan al-. Jawāhir al-kalām fī thawbih al-jadīd. Qom: Muʾassisat Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-Fiqh al-Islāmī, 1421 AH.
  • Shahīd al-Thānī, Zayn al-Dīn b. ʿAlī. Masālik al-ifhām ilā tanqīh sharāyiʿ al-Islām. 1st edition. Qom: Muʾassisat al-Maʿārif al-Islāmīyya, 1413 AH.
  • Tawfīqī, Ḥusayn. Āshnāʿī bā adyān-i buzurg. Tehran: Markaz-i biyn al-milalī-yi tarjuma wa nashr-i Al-Muṣṭafā (s), 1394 SH.
  • Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, Muḥammad Kāẓim al-. Al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā. Edited by Aḥmad Muḥsinī Sabziwārī. 1st edition. Qom: Daftar-i Intishārāt-i Islāmī, 1419 AH.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikishia.net/w/index.php?title=Repentance_Bath&oldid=167487"