- Etiquette of Ritual Bathing and Entering the Bathhouse
When the Prophet ﷺ performed ghusl he would screen himself with a piece of cloth. In the Ṣaḥīḥ it is related that his daughter Fāṭimah (1) shielded the Prophet ﷺ with a garment in the year of the Conquest while he was bathing, after which he prayed eight cycles of prayer. The same source also reports that Maymūnah screened him while he bathed.
He once saw a man washing himself in the open plain—al-barāz is the name for a wide expanse of land—so he mounted the pulpit, praised and extolled Allah, and said: “Allah is Forbearing, Modest, and Concealing; He loves modesty and concealment. Therefore, when one of you bathes, let him hide himself.” (N: 70) This comes by way of Zuhayr: “ʿAbd al-Malik narrated to us from ʿAṭāʾ from Yaʿlā,” and the chain is sound.
Aḥmad (4/224) and al-Nasāʾī likewise recorded it in an abridged form: “Allah is Modest and Concealing; so when any of you intends to bathe, let him keep out of sight behind something.”
Abū Dāwūd (2/170) related both wordings and remarked that the first is more complete.
The Prophet ﷺ also said: “The Children of Israel used to bathe naked, looking at one another, whereas Moses—peace be upon him—would bathe alone. They said, ‘By Allah, nothing keeps Moses from bathing with us except that he is afflicted with an adara (a swelling in the testicle).’ One day he went to bathe, placed his garment on a stone, and the stone ran off with it. Moses pursued it, crying, ‘My garment, O stone! My garment, O stone!’ until the Children of Israel saw the nakedness of Moses and said, ‘By Allah, there is nothing wrong with Moses.’ He then took his garment and began striking the stone.” (Agreed upon)
He also said: “While Job, peace be upon him, was bathing unclothed, a swarm of locusts …”