Islam Its Belief and Practices - Radical Truth

36 ISLAM ITS BELIEFS AND PRACTICES
Paradise" and that "which causes man to be a true
believer." There are several preliminaries which
precede the actual prayer and these shall engage
our attention before proceeding to a description of
the prayer itself.
1. Preliminaries:
There are certain obligatory and non-obligatory acts
which are performed before the actual worship (namiiz),
such as purification, call for prayer, etc.
A. Purification. It is obligatory on the part of the
worshipper that he must purify himself from
material, as well as from legal and ceremonial uncleanness
before he proceeds to say. his namaz.
This is prescribed on the basis of the teaching of
the Qur'iin and Tradition. "0 ye believer! when
ye rise up to prayer wash your faces, and your hands
as far as the elbows, and your feet down to the
ankles. And if ye are polluted, then purify yourselves."
Siira 5: 8. 9; see also Siiras 4: 46; 9: 109; 56:
78. Mul;1ammad used to say: "Purification is the key
of prayer;" "Religion is built on cleanness," and
"Purification is one-half of faith."
The different methods of purification may be described
as follows:
I. The General Methods of Purification.
These comprise the following prescribed methods:
i. WUJ;>O, the partial ablution; and when it has
been properly performed it is valid for the
five daily prayers, and need not be repeated
unless it has been rendered invalid by the
person's having contracted one of the lesser
impurities (1;iadalh.-i-a~gb,ar) which will be
described later,
1. The Method of Performing the Wuqii.
THE PRESCRIBED DUTIES 37
(a) The believer cleanses his teeth by using
miswak, which is a piece of fibrous
wood; (b) He recites God's name or
says some such prayer as: "In the
name of God the merciful and the
compassionate, I take my refuge from
the instigations of the devils. I take
my refuge unto Thee, 0 Lord, lest they
approach me;" (c) Then he washes
his hands up to his wrist three times;
(d) He makes the intention of performing
WUlj,U; (e) Rinses his mouth
three times and gargles; (f) He takes
a little water and throws into his
nostrils three times and blows out the
water each time; (g) Next he washes
his face from the top of the forehead
to the chin and as far as each ear; (h)
Then he washes his right hand and
then left as far as his elbows three
times, and causes the water to run
along his arm from the palm of the
hand to the elbow; (i) He passes his
wet hands over his whole head; (j) He
passes his fingers into his ears and twists
them round; (k) He then passes his
wet fingers behind his neck; (I) He
passes his wet fingers also through his
beard; (m) Then he passes the wet
fingers of one hand between the fingers
of the other hand; (n) Lastly, he
washes his feet; and (0) Passes the wet
fingers of his hand between the toes.
In this description of the various acts of WUlj,U,
which