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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Save precious drops during ablution

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MUSCAT, APRIL 23 - Everyday millions of gallons of water go to the drains for lack of prudence on the part of believers while doing ablution (wudu), an obligatory cleansing process fundamental to the Islamic prayers.


In most cases, large amount of water, which is much more than required, is used just by keeping the tap on while making ‘wudu’.


“Muslims should be conscious about the Almighty, the future generations and the environment so that they do not misuse the natural resources “, Hatim Abdulsalam, a religious scholar told the Observer.


According to the statistics released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), there are more than 16,005 registered mosques in Oman besides hundreds of small mosques and privately owned mosques.


All these mosques facilitate believers to offer five times obligatory prayers besides the mandatory prayers.


They are open from early morning till late night. An average sized mosque uses around 25,000 to 30,000 litres of water on Fridays when mass congregations are held.


“Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) advises moderation when using water during ablution. He himself used a minimal amount of water, using just one Mudd of water when carrying out Wudu and only five Mudds for Ghusl”, he added.


One mudd is equivalent of 625 ml (543 grams) and five mudds is slightly more than 3 litres whereas modern society uses three times more than the prophet’s period.


For wudu the amount of water one is permitted to use is one Madd which is about two hand fulls of water, a quantity which the present generation can even imagine to use.


According to the Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Endowments, it is prohibited to waste water and the authorities are working on finding ways to reduce water consumption at masjids.


“Having said, there are initiatives to reuse the used water for irrigation and watering the plants around the mosque, but still the wastage of water is uncontrollable”, senior official from the Awqaf said.


Wasting precious resources is not at all a good practice. Being extravagant with either material or immaterial resources is an offence in the Islamic belief.


“There have been efforts to curtail this practice. Instead of manually controlled taps, use of sensor taps can check wastage of water to some extent”, Shakil Naramwala, a person closely associated with administration of mosques, said.


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