Question

Article on topic cleanliness is next to godliness

Answer 1

"Cleanliness is next to godliness." This means that cleanliness comes next to godliness in importance. But in practice it has been interpreted in a different way, and made to mean that godliness can dispense with cleanliness. In the middle Ages in Europe, and in some places and classes in India, godliness was associated with dirt. The old ascetic monk, and the Indian fakir, was considered to be all the more holy for being filthy. They lived in "the odour of sanctity", and a pretty foul odour it must have been! But true godliness surely means cleanliness of soul and body; and the old proverb should read, "Cleanliness is a part of godliness” as the supreme code of conduct Islam proposes. This Divine religion indoctrinates the concept to its followers by characterizing it to be the half of the faith.