Literary Discussions

I spent several years at a very left wing secular site called progressive Islam (no longer active.)  They featured cartoons depicting Jesus and Mohammad in bed which I thought was in poor taste. Anyway most of the Muslims there knew only a few words in Arabic, so they would say Oh I always GHUSHAL, when they could say "I always bathe/shower" and they knew "haram" "halal" "wudu" and some other words. I thought their "name dropping"a  foolish display of ignorance.  One the other hand someone might say I am guilty of the same, for ahimsa is more specific than non-violence, dharma is more encompassing than "law" and moksha is more specific than liberation/enlightenment. I don't know a good word for bhakti in English but perhaps there is one.  One might say "Ahimsa is the highest form of Dharma" or "non-violence is the highest form of righteouness."

Besides, Ghusl means ritual washing and is not appropriate for when you simply take a shower because you are smelly and sweaty. Ghusl should not be confused with wudu, a partial ablution, that Muslims perform before salat. I knew of one lazy professor convert to Islam who kept a stone in her office to replace wudu with water simply because she was in a rush so she would touch the stone and then race down the hallway mumbling her prayers.  Sand and stone is meant to be used ONLY when no water is handy.

But if ye are ill, or on a journey, or one of you cometh from offices of nature, or ye have been in contact with women, and ye find no water, then take for yourselves clean sand or earth, and rub therewith your faces and hands, Allah doth not wish to place you in a difficulty, but to make you clean, and to complete his favour to you, that ye may be grateful.

—Al-Ma'ida, Sura 5, Ayah 6