Customs and Behaviour
Practitioners of Islam are generally taught to follow some specific customs in their daily lives. Most of these customs can be traced back to Abrahamic traditions in Pre-Islamic Arabian society. Due to Muhammad's sanction or tacit approval of such practices, these customs are considered to be Sunnah (practices of Muhammad as part of the religion) by the Ummah (Muslim nation). It includes customs like:
- Saying "Bismillah" (in the name of God) before eating and drinking.
- Using the right hand for drinking and eating.
- Saying "As-Salaam Alaikum" (peace be upon you) when meeting someone and answering with "Wa 'alaikumus salam" (and peace be upon you).
- Saying "Alhamdulillah" (all gratitude is for only God) when sneezing and responding with "Yarhamukallah" (God have mercy on you).
- Saying the "Adhan" (prayer call) in the right ear of a newborn and the Iqama in its left.
- In the sphere of hygiene, it includes:
- Clipping the moustache
- Cutting nails
- Circumcising the male offspring
- Cleaning the nostrils, the mouth, and the teeth and
- Cleaning the body after urination and defecation
- Abstention from sexual relations during the menstrual cycle and the puerperal discharge, and ceremonial bath after the menstrual cycle, and Janabah (seminal/ovular discharge or sexual intercourse).
- Burial rituals include funeral prayer of bathed and enshrouded body in coffin cloth and burying it in a grave.
Read more about this topic: Sharia Law, Topics of Islamic Law
Famous quotes containing the words customs and, customs and/or behaviour:
“No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. He sees it edited by a definite set of customs and institutions and ways of thinking.”
—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)
“We set up a certain aim, and put ourselves of our own will into the power of a certain current. Once having done that, we find ourselves committed to usages and customs which we had not before fully known, but from which we cannot depart without giving up the end which we have chosen. But we have no right, therefore, to claim that we are under the yoke of necessity. We might as well say that the man whom we see struggling vainly in the current of Niagara could not have helped jumping in.”
—Anna C. Brackett (1836–1911)
“... into the novel goes such taste as I have for rational behaviour and social portraiture. The short story, as I see it to be, allows for what is crazy about humanity: obstinacies, inordinate heroisms, “immortal longings.””
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)