Repentance Bath

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Repentance bath or Ghusl al-tawba (Arabic: غُسْل التَوبَة) 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 the 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. At the same time, 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 converted Muslims to perform a ritual bath.[9]

According to al-Shahid al-Thani, a tenth/sixteenth-century Shiite jurist, some Sunni jurists believe that a ritual bath for repentance from 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

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