By Darakhshan Siddiqui

It is a beautiful spring morning. Javeria Sumbul, a homemaker, is on her wit’s end. Her elder daughter and son-in-law are coming over for dinner, and Javeria wants to make sure that her house is spick and span. Her younger daughters are extremely grumpy, as they know what their brother-in-law’s visit entails. Javeria is issuing instructions at top speed, and her daughters are running around, dusting, sweeping and de-cluttering the rooms. Javeria herself is taking out her best dinner set and aims to wash it herself, not trusting the maid to do so, lest she breaks even one piece and spoils the whole set.

By the time the family arrives, the house is sparkling clean, the furniture is glowing and the crockery is set out. As the elder daughter arrives, she is quickly surrounded by her mother and sisters, all eager to hear the latest goings-on at her in-laws. The son-in-law is happily sharing his office grievances with his all-ears father-in-law.

What an irony! A house is wiped clean of the last speck of dust. But the inmates either forgot or ignored to purify their hearts and souls along with it.

Islam stresses a lot on cleanliness and provides complete details regarding Taharah. Yet, at the same time, it equally emphasises on inner cleanliness. 

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