Muhammad, just as You blessed Abraham and the family of Abraham. Truly, You are Praiseworthy, Glorious.” (1)

The Exalted also says,
“And of Abraham—who fulfilled [his obligations].” (Q 53:37)

They explain: He fulfilled everything that he was commanded, embodying every quality and branch of faith. The attention he gave to great matters never distracted him from lesser ones, nor did bearing the burdens of the major duties make him neglect the minor.

ʿAbd al-Razzāq reported: Maʿmar informed us, from Ibn Ṭāwūs, from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās—regarding the verse,
“And when his Lord tested Abraham with certain words and he fulfilled them…” (Q 2:124)—that Allah tried him with acts of purification: five relating to the head and five to the body.

Concerning the head: trimming the moustache, rinsing the mouth, using the tooth-stick, inhaling water into the nose, and parting the hair.

Concerning the body: clipping the nails, shaving the pubic hair, circumcision, plucking the armpits, and washing the traces of excrement and urine with water. Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded this (2), and similar reports come from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, Mujāhid, al-Shaʿbī, al-Nakhaʿī, Abū Ṣāliḥ, and Abū al-Jild.

I say: In the two Ṣaḥīḥs it is related from Abū Hurayrah that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said, “Five are from the natural disposition (fiṭrah): circumcision, shaving the pubic hair, trimming the moustache, clipping the nails, and plucking the armpits.” (3)

And in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim and the Sunan collections (4) there is the hadith transmitted by Wakīʿ, from Zakarīyā ibn Abī Zāʾidah, from Muṣʿab ibn Shaybah al-ʿAbdarī al-Makkī al-Ḥajabī, from Ṭalq ibn Ḥabīb al-ʿAnazī, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr, from ʿĀʾishah, who said: The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said, “Ten are from the fiṭrah: trimming the moustache, letting the beard grow, using the tooth-stick, inhaling water into the nose, clipping the nails, washing the knuckles, plucking the armpits, shaving the pubic hair, and reducing the use of water”—meaning: cleansing oneself after relieving oneself—“and,” Muṣʿab added, “I forgot the tenth, unless it was rinsing the mouth.” Wakīʿ said: “Reducing the use of water” refers to istinjāʾ (washing away impurities). A discussion of circumcision will follow when we address his age.

The point is that he—peace be upon him—was never so absorbed in pure devotion to Allah, exalted is He, and in the profound humility of lofty worship that he neglected the welfare of his own body. He gave every limb the care and refinement it deserved, removing from it whatever might mar its appearance