Even the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) used to send delegations
comprising men who were personable and bore charming names. The
Prophet often changed names deriving from mountains and places, and
substituted good and pleasing names instead. But bodily forms are
moulded in the womb of the mother: these cannot be changed. Now as
regards the forms of the animating spirit, e.g., habits and deportment,
these can be reformed by discipline, meditation and prayer, and cultivation of courtesy and deportment by a person who has command over the
self, so that he makes his animus gradually shed away the evils he possesses and adopt the ways which are described in books on ethics. The first
thing that comes up is his countenance. While he cannot change it, he
can at least keep it clean from impurities. Man should not lag behind the
non-rational animals. Behold the cat. When it begins to inhabit the
abodes of man, it keeps the house and the floor clean from its own excrement, and selects a special place for defecation, just as man builds his
own closet. In other words, it follows the juridical command of God:
O ve who believe! When ye rise up for prayer, wash your
faces, and your hands up to the elbows, and lightly rub your
heads and (wash) your feet up to the ankles... 25
See how conscious the cat is of its cleanliness and how it buries its faeces
in the earth so that no putrefying smell is let out, how it licks its organ
of excrement like a man performing ablution. It then cleans its own
hands and feet by licking, and having scratched its nose from below,
sneezes in the manner of a man cleaning his nostrils with the attesting
finger, so that the humidity is expelled. It then gurgles and makes movement as if it is douching its nose with water. It then moistens its palms
with its own spit and lightly rubs its ears.
The purification of man is dependent upon water, whose odour and
puritv are pleasing to the soul and the self tastes the pleasure of life.
How can that which in itself is ugly and evil-looking bring about cleanliness? This can be done by water alone which the Shari 'ah has adjudged
to be clean or its substitute. Advice given by noble Arab men and
women to their daughters, when as brides they left for their husbands'
homes, revolves round this single point. Thus 'Abd Allah bin Ja'far bin
Abi Talib (may God be pleased with him) advised his daughter at the
time of her departure:
"Do not be excessively egoistic for this is the key to divorce. Do not
display too much wrath, as this is liable to generate malice. Be most
attentive to the outer countenance you wear. The thing that adorns
the countenance most is the collyrium. Love scent and perfumes.
And the thing that bears the best perfume is water."
'Amir bin al-Zarb al-'Adwani, while marrying off his daughter to the son
of his brother, told his wife:
