The practices of the fitrah

It is narrated from Wasil (may Allah have mercy on him) that he said: I came to Abu Ayyub al-Azdi (may Allah have mercy on him) and shook hands with him, and he found my nails long. He said: A man came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and began asking him (about religious matters), and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "One of you asks me about the news of the heavens, that is, revelation and the unseen, while he leaves his nails long like the talons of birds, in which janabah, that is, impurity, and dirt keep collecting!" Imam al-Bayhaqi (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "This Abu Ayyub is a Successor (Tabi'i), and this hadith is mursal." And Yunus bin Habib, the narrator from Abu Dawud, said that Abu Mas'ud al-Razi narrated it from al-Aqadi, from Quraysh, from Sulayman bin Farrukh, who said: "I met Abu Ayyub," then he mentioned the same incident, but he did not say the word "al-Azdi".

It is narrated from Asim bin Bahdalah that he said: "I saw Shaqiq have his hair (of the head or beard) cut, then he entered the mosque and offered the Zuhr and Asr prayers, and he did not touch water (to renew his ablution after the haircut)."

It is narrated from Ibrahim al-Nakha'i (may Allah have mercy on him) that he said (about the place after clipping the nails or cutting the hair): "We wipe it with water (that is, pass a wet hand over it)." Also from Ibrahim al-Nakha'i (may Allah have mercy on him) it is narrated that he said: "Whatever part of a nail or hair is touched by iron (that is, scissors, a nail-clipper and the like, meaning it is cut), moisten that place with water."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: "This act has only increased him in purity and cleanliness." He meant cutting the (excess bodily) hair and clipping the nails.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) that he said to a barber: "O boy, reach as far as the two bones of the ears (when shaving the head)." The narrator says: When he had shaved his head, he presented his two arms and chest to him (to be shaved), so the barber shaved the hair on them while the people were watching him. Then his son Salim (may Allah have mercy on him) said to him: O dear father, the people are thinking that (shaving this body hair) is a Sunnah? He replied: "Then tell the people that it is certainly not a Sunnah; rather, this hair of his was troubling Ibn Umar, so he wanted to remove it and lighten his burden."

It is narrated from Musa bin Ali, from his father, that Sayyiduna Ibrahim (peace be upon him) was commanded to be circumcised, so he circumcised himself with an adze (a carpenter's tool), which caused him severe pain and hardship. Then Allah Almighty revealed to him: "You hastened before you were commanded with the tool specific to this task." He said: "O my Lord, I strongly disliked delaying the fulfilment of Your command even slightly."

It is narrated from Imam Ibn Sirin (may Allah have mercy on him) that he said: "He was named 'al-Najjar' (the carpenter) only because he circumcised himself with a 'qadum' (that is, a sharp-edged tool like an adze)."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu al-Darda' (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "There are four practices that bring about purity and cleanliness: trimming the moustache, removing the pubic hair, clipping the nails and using the siwak."