Miswaak and its Benefits

Society Religion & Philosophy
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Re: Miswaak and its Benefits

Finally a post of yours that has some point to it. I see what you mean however you did not answer my question though. Did Prophet SAW or Islam introduce the concept of siwak? Or did people alreayd perform siwak?

Wudu was not something people did before and Islam introduced the ritual steps for wudu otherwise everyone cleaned or bathed in whatever manner they liked.

Siwak is not a particular type wood, its made from many different kinds. So siwak is really tied with a tool and action not substance. In that context toothbrush and toothpaste have the same purpose as that of siwak. Using a twig does not make it ibaadah but the action of cleaning your mouth that does. What will you do if the Araak tree becomes extinct?

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Its really not complicated.

You can achieve the goal of being clean with either the toothbrush or miswak.
However, since it is sunnah to do miswak, you get the reward for following the sunnah. Now there are certain things in the miswak that toothpaste cannot give u. but we need to really ask a bigger question:
how much arrogance do I have in my heart?

please be careful, u all are arguing over miswak, yet varying degrees of arrogance can be seen in the posts.
and as you all may know that anyone with pride, be it the size of a mustard seed, shall not enter jannah.
so please, let act like we are muftis,
if u have a link that explains the issue post it, but please don't give ur opinion.
we cannot have any opinion on the deen, since to start with, we cannot even control the pride we have in our hearts because of what we think we know.

now if there are gonna be 73 sects...then from what I gather, one will be strict miswakis and another will be Al toothpaste wal miswak?
please bros and sis, lets concentrate on puryfiying our hearts of our sins first, and in order to quench our desire to debate, possibly be in the company of good people and learn from them inshAllah and if we are qualified and sincere enough we can probably get ijaazah to start preaching in an authoritative but humble tone.

Only Allah swt has the final verdict and All Praise is for Him alone

May Allah guide us all and join us all in siraat al mustaqeem. Allahumma Ameen

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Re: Miswaak and its Benefits

:salam:

I don’t think I would’ve replied further but your post warranted it.

As you stated the goal is to clean. Doesn’t matter whether you do it with siwak or toothbrush. They are only instruments. The sunnah is not about siwak but about cleaning. Anything the Prophet SAW did is a sunnah or are only the things that got recorded in our hadith collections from his life sunnah. The Prophet SAW used water to rinse his mouth. Is that a sunnah in the sense that it needs to be followed exactly. His emphasis is on cleaning by means of a siwak as it was what was commonly used at the time and achieved the best results for cleaning your mouth. I think none of the muslims today can ever practice the sunnah of the Prophet SAW given that we are living 1400 years after him and do not have the same lifestyle or culture anymore given your line of reasoning or imitation. The problem with many muslims is they think they cannot be good muslims unless they imitate the Prophet SAW ditto as if they are living in 7th century Arabia. Imitation is important in ritual worship.

You should not be telling me about arrogance when you are arrogant enough to pass a verdict over me. Your arrogance is infact becoming Gharoor here … pride assuming others are dumb and know nothing about what they say. We do not have the Prophet SAW in out midst to tell us his intentions. Your assumption is just as good as mine. We are all assuming what his intentions were.

I am not against siwak but this half baked logic that unless its a siwak it carries not ajar is horse pucky. If I have a siwak available I would definitely use it. If I had a toothbrush available I would use that. My goal is the follow the sunnah of Prophet SAW of keeping clean. If the trees from which siwak is made become extinct then you are implying that the sunnah goes with it. And if it is not tied with one particular tree from which siwak is made then your whole argument about the tool (siwak) goes down in the dust.

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and how did u came to this number my brother?

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Walaikum Salaam,

well to start off, I provoked the opposite reaction lol, for which I blame my linguistic incompetence. All I wanted to say was

  1. If u use miswak, u get cleanliness and ajar since the Rasool pbuh did it.(He said that He would have made is fardh, were it not going to be an inconvenience for the Ummah. Here we see that miswak was dear to him, for whatever wisdom, if we can do it awesome, if we can’t, then Allah understands how genuine our reasons are)
  2. Here u are assuming I am condemning toothpaste, and giving more weight to miswak being the sunnah and cleanliness not. That isnt true. May Allah forgive me if anyone got that unintended impression.
  3. I have nowhere mentioned that you need to follow the sunnah ditto or else watever. That is unfair on ur part to attribute ur assumptions on everyone else. we are all weak, the best we can do is follow that which we can with sincerity and love.(here please dont assume i’m saying if u dont use miswak u dont love the Prophet peace be upon him, as i mentioned the GOAL is cleaniliness…end of story)
  4. I have nowhere mentioned or allusioned to anyone being arrogant specifically so please calm down. I was referring to the tone of the forum. It sounded like ppl will start stomping on each other soon.
  5. All I wanted to do was to divert the attention to our own self rather than join in pointing fingers at each other.
  6. I cannot even think of giving a fatwa, i need to work on myself way b4. I apologize if u felt victimzed.
  7. I still maintain that we should not argue about whether siwak carries ajar or toothpaste…please we have a lot else to worry about(i need to work on conveying my message i guess more more humbly) and for others…well they are better judges for themselves.

I had no intention watsoever of offending any1 wallahi, i just wanted to shift the focus from miswak to the heart as shaitan uses little things to plant differences among us, hence those differences give rise to arrogance and that is what I wanted to address.

I am the first one to criticize myself and I apologize for not having made that clear in my earlier post.

JazakAllah for your insight,
your brother

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Re: Miswaak and its Benefits

dear brother,
"My Ummah will be fragmented into seventy-three (73) sects. All of them will be in Hell Fire except one sect. They (the Companions) said: Allah's Messenger, which is that? Whereupon he said: It is one to which I and my companions belong". [Tirmidhi. 171]
The best people are those living in my generation, then those coming after them, and then those coming after (the second generation). [Saheeh al-Bukhaaree, 3/219]

salaam alaikum

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Re: Miswaak and its Benefits

What you must understand is that by accepting logic and reason - is not the same thing as saying we know it all. How do you know that our souls are not created from a fabric of particles, that we just haven't discovered yet? Or better yet, how do we know that our soul isn't made from an energy that we just haven't stumbled upon yet? Or we have and we just haven't been able to scientifically connect the dots?

I doubt God means us to understand EVERYTHING. The world will end before that happens. But that doesn't mean God did not ever use science to create the world. He obviously did - just look around you.

Scientists and rationalists do not ever say that they know everything. Nor do we say that everything falls into reason as we know it now, because our understanding of reason as it operates in the world is most likely incomplete.

Doesn't mean that you shouldn't go looking for these thigns, and that you should just "shut up and accept it all".

Some of us like to think. Some of us don't. The latter are just lazy and that sort of thinking has led the Islamic civilization into the ruin its in now.

thanks a lot.

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Re: Miswaak and its Benefits

I don’t understand HOW you can think a wooden stick can give you any benefit beyond cleanliness. If it does give you spiritual benefit, that benefit is not directly from the stick. Its from the cleanliness.

Just think of how refreshed and alert you feel if you’ve washed your mouth, vs. if you haven’t. Think how your day went when your breath was stinky and you didn’t have a miswak, toothbrush, mint or mouthwash nearby to take care of it?

It makes your whole day go haywire.

Obviously, there are spiritual benefits. But its because of the state of mind you achieve once you are clean.

For example, I can’t focus in class or do work when my mouth is smelly. I carry around gum and a small mouthwash bottle to take care of myself during the middle of the day. Otherwise, I can’t work, I can’t focus, I get in a bad mood, I’m not talking and participating just to keep my mouth shut so no one else smells my breath.

Get the idea?

Really, with the line of reasoning some of you have proposed, you really ought to be riding camels, not mercedes and bmw’s. But we all know how Pakistanis dig that crap.

Has anyone done this before?
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Re: Miswaak and its Benefits

because prophet:saw: says so.

the benefit from the cleanliness is different than the rewards narrated in ahaadeeth

why are you asking that? No one said we should not clean our mouth.

good point… but there is no disagreement on that to begin with.

NO. It is because we follow the commands of the Prophet:saw:

you are getting confused by giving such examples… the thread is about using miswaak - one of the purpose is to clean the mouth.. It’s not that Miswaak does not do it.

wait a minute… are there any ahadeeth about getting sawaab or rewards for riding camels?? come again?

agreed :slight_smile:

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InshAllah those who use miswaak will get the rewards promised by Allah (SWT). Those who never bothered using a miswaak will regret not taking the extra two minutes to use one everyday when they find out the benefits and rewards it reaps on the Day of Judgment.

Prophet Muhammad (SAAS) wanted to make the use of miswaak mandatory but felt it would be a burden to his ummah. Boy was he right.

It's a shame many Muslims say toothpaste is enough. Yeah it's good enough to keep your teeth clean but that's the end of it. Miswaaks pay off not only here, but on the Day of Judgment. The day Allah doesn't care if you used Colgate or Aquafresh. Instead He will be pleased with those who took the effort of using a miswaak.

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Dear Brother,

About the 2nd Hadith i have no doubt about!!!

But first one is doubtful, anyway can u tell me how may cults are there right now??? yani none of these cult will admit that they are going to hell or they are wrong one, i think every cult will go to hell as forming a Firqah (division) in muslims is the biggest sin after shirk, so only Muslims will be going to Jannah and not any particular cult.

Science Word Scramble!
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Re: Miswaak and its Benefits

Lets end this disucssion, and let our consious decide who is right or wrong, let the people who are saying Miswak is every thing use it every day, as it will give them spiritual benefits and etc etc... and lets not be hypocrate by filling pages in the favor of Miswak and not using it or using it only in some specific days.

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As long as you mullahs don't suicide bomb us for not using miswaak, you all can use whatever you want to clean your teeth.

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How does Miswaak sharpen memory and cure headaches? Has this been scientifically proven yet?
Reliable sources appreciated.

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Do you have any independent reference where a study had been carried out specially the noor on the face thingie.

Any faith based references will be enough as well.

And still we have aids and cancers and what not in Islamic world. Means either miswaak was counterfeat or the effects.

And the other thing is if Hz Aisha had reported was a different thing but in the above statement it is mentioned that she said, was she a prophet as well?

PS: The sarcasm is intended and justified after all the nice talks by Hannibal and USResident.

Allah aap ko khush rakhay. Jeetay raho.

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I am aware of the fact that everyone thinks they are right and obviously no clear line is drawn as to what are the exact details of the sects, and therefore, the matter of who goes to jannah rests with Allah alone anyways.
Im not aware if the first hadith is doubtful, although i try not to use just any hadith I hear, i am not a scholar, but please let me know if u come across any weakness in hte character of the hadith(unless u said its doubtful because its simply not narrated by Imam Bukhari (may Allah hav mercy on him))

jazakAllah. I had the goal of ending the discussion by switching the direction...to oneself instead...at least i tried to....I need to work on myself just like everyone else does inshAllah.

salaam alaikum:)

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So why isn't it sunnah to use toothpaste or soap? They both clean us.

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Modern tootpaste was not invented until the 1890's. Fluoride was first used in the 1940's.

Early versions of toothpaste included ground shells, talc, honey, dried flowers, mice, rabbit heads, dolphin blood, lizard livers and human urine. Not very effective and obviously contained corrosive and just plain gross ingredients.

I feel sure if Crest whitening mint flavored gel with fluoride was available in 7th century Arabia, it would be sunnah today.

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It takes a whole lot to tick me off, but dear MMF :lahol:

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Re: Miswaak and its Benefits


you are missing my point.

Not everyone used Miswaaks in the 7th century. I'm sure there were other ways they cleaned their teeth. But how come those methods aren't sunnah and miswaak is?

I'm sure if you use toothpaste for the purpose of cleaning your teeth and extracting rewards that was promised by Allah (SWT) for doing this you will get them. But it still isn't a "sunnah."

Why infringe the beliefs of those Muslims who use Miswaak to gain extra rewards here and in the hereafter?