Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
From a spiritual point of view, what is the significance of performing the ghusl on the deceased?
What is the significance of performing the ghusl after conjugal rights (sexual activity) when it is considered an act of worship?
Walaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,
0. The legal basis of the rulings of the Shariah is the command of the Lawgiver to do or avoid something. [See: http://www.sunnipath.com] This is based on the fact that the good and bad are only that which Allah and His Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace) have deemed good or bad. The role of the intellect in this regard is to understand and apply the command of the Lawgiver, not to determine the good and bad on its own.
1. The essential spiritual significance of all recommended and obligatory acts is discharging the duties of our slavehood to Allah Most High. We act as slaves, fulfilling the command of our Lord, in a state of absolute neediness, absolute submission, absolute thankfulness, absolute love, and absolute longing.
2. The ritual bath (ghusl) cleans outwardly and inwardly. The wisdom of making it obligatory to wash the dead is that it is a way of seeking that Allah wash away and overlook the dead person’s sins and accept them in the best of ways.
Why ghusl after intercourse if it is worship?
3. Firstly, sex is not itself an act of worship. Rather, there is reward in it if one has good intentions behind it. Otherwise
4. There are physical and spiritual benefits to the purificatory bath (ghusl) after sexual intercourse. When we look at the matters that make ghusl necessary, they all are results of fulfilling one’s physical desires. Allah makes us return through all our mundane actions to Him; in this way, we are not to be heedless of Him even in the most mundane of matters.
And true joy is only with Allah.
Wassalam,
Faraz Rabbani