Are Muslims Baptized?

Peace of God and His mercy to you.

Baptism (according to The Free Dictionary):

a Christian religious rite in which a person is immersed in or sprinkled with water as a sign of being cleansed from sin and accepted as a member of the Church.

Are we born sinful? How can we be sinful in our mother's womb? - We are not!

Where Islam assumes a unity of body and soul, along with an original innocence that does not require ritual salvation, but one based on deeds and individual accountability, Christian philosophy sees the two as independent entities. Inspired by Plato’s philosophy of dualism, it conceives of a rational, controllable mind or soul, as well as a body that is governed by blind necessity and that cannot always be kept in check by the mind.

From Reading Islam:

One of the fundamental distinctions between Islam and Christianity lies in their view of the relationship between body and soul. This also indirectly reveals a difference in the value they both give to water!

Where Islam assumes a unity of body and soul, along with an original innocence that does not require ritual salvation, but one based on deeds and individual accountability, Christian philosophy sees the two as independent entities. Inspired by Plato’s philosophy of dualism, it conceives of a rational, controllable mind or soul, as well as a body that is governed by blind necessity and that cannot always be kept in check by the mind.

The idea of separation of body and soul was adopted by the Church and strongly dominated the ideology of early Christian ascetics. They believed physical suffering and deprivation would purify the spirit and bring the faithful closer to Christ, leading to decidedly questionable ideas about purity and cleanliness.

Saints of early Christianity boasted that water had never touched their feet except when they had had to wade across a stream… St. Jerome also denounced bathing as a pagan practice and affirmed that: “He who has bathed in Christ [i.e. has been baptized] does not need a second bath.”

This abhorrence of bathing and everything related to it persisted far into the Middle Ages and went beyond the realms of the clergy. During the Spanish Reconquista of the fifteenth century, Queen Isabella famously declared she would not change her robe until Granada fell. Given that the siege lasted eight months, one can imagine the odor that surrounded the pious Catholic Queen…

As for Islam, the unity of body and soul meant regular ablution and bathing, as a religious requirement linked to the very notion of worship…

Christian baptism, in which newborn babies - or adults - are blessed by holy water and accepted into the Church, also reveals a different view of water in the two religions. In Islam, all water is pure and sent as a gift from Allah. This is repeated many times in the Qur’an, as in Surah 77, verse 27:

*{We provided you with sweet water}*

According to Islam, all water - as long as it is mutlaq (absolutely natural, free from impurities) - can be used for ablution.

The “holy” water that is used in Christian baptism is of a different nature; it is not just any water, but water that has been blessed in the name of Christ… This blessing gives the water a special quality, an added value that sets it apart and elevates it above other water.

Records from the early Church Fathers show that “holy” water was believed to chase away evil spirits and cure a variety of illnesses. Many Christians kept baptismal water in their houses throughout the year, or else used it to water their fields, vineyards and gardens.

As for Islamic doctrine, it ascribes purity to all water. The Qur’an says in Surah 22, verse 5:

*{And you see the land dried up, but when We send down water upon it, it trembles, and swells, and grows…}*

Also, wudu’ (ablution before prayers) and ghusl (bathing from physical impurity, as monthly menstruation or marital sexual intercourse, etc.) are both part of the act of worship, rituals that are mandatory to perform prayers. As such, these rituals include a spiritual component, which means that even if one is physically clean, but has not carried out the purification in ritual fashion, he/she is not permitted to pray.

Still, this prohibition has nothing to do with physical purity - whether one has clean feet or whether one might stain the ground he/she will stand on to pray, for example. It is purely a question of reverence towards the idea of standing to pray to Allah.

Thus, physical purity alone does not suffice to arrive at a state of tahara, ritual purity. Ablution should not be carried out mechanically, but only after neyya (intention), the silent expression of sincerity and obedience to Allah.

This is the spiritual component of the purification ritual: while the body is purified with water, the mind must be completely focused on Allah. Carrying out wudu’ or ghusl, simply for refreshment in hot weather, for example, makes it a secular act not a part of a Muslim worship…

The physical and spiritual components of the purification ritual reflect the Islamic principle of tawhid (oneness): body and mind should be united in the performance of religious duties, to become one… worshiping Allah, the One and Only. Islam means “surrendering to Allah”, and Muslims, “those who have surrendered to Allah”, do so with body and soul.

An inscription in the baths of Granada’s old Moorish Quarter expresses this link between physical and spiritual purity. It says that the body is the mirror of the soul, and therefore “outer stains suggest inner ones as well.”

There are two types of purification by water in Islam. Wudu’, the minor purification carried out before prayer, consists of washing the hands, the face, the forearms, the feet and sweeping by the head. The hadiths explain that by performing wudu’ the believer kind of washes away sin.

The process of wudu’ is described in a very physical way, as though the sin were a visible stain, an insidious little demon that clings to the believer and can only be chased away with water!! Thus when a believer washes his face during wudu’, it is said that every sin that he/she contemplated with his/her eyes, is washed away from his/her face with the last drop of water; when he/she washes his/her hands, every sin they wrought is effaced; and when he/she washes his/her feet, every sin toward which his/her feet have walked, is washed away, until he/she comes out pure of all sins.

As for ghusl, it is the major purification, which cleanses the whole body from impurities and is required after sexual intercourse, menstruation, childbirth, before adopting Islam, and after death. Also, it is recommended before important celebrations and during hajj (pilgrimage). Muhammad (pbuh) advised his followers to bath at least every Friday, clean their body, cut their fingernails and add nice scents to their hair and clothes.

Much can be said about how the notion of original innocence was also reflected in a close relation between the Muslim and nature. We live on earth not because we left paradise… but because we were destined to live on it! And, we enjoy its purity and use its waters to purify our bodies and soul in daily life…

As there is no concept of incarnation or embodiment in the notion of divinity in Islam, water is a blessing. It is not sacralized by human words, but by the initial creation of it by Allah.

We can use this issue to explore the core of Tawhid – oneness and transcendence of God - but this is a very vast issue that needs separate elaboration.