| Answer: The Holy Qur’ān has directed the believers to be
in the state of ‘Wudū’ when they pray. They are not asked to be in that
condition for any other purpose, although it encourages its readers to remember
Allah as much as is possible. We cannot, therefore, escape from concluding that
the condition of ‘Wudū’ as a binding necessity is applicable only for prayers
and not for other forms of remembering Allah, including recitation of the Holy Qur’ān.
It should not be construed from the above conclusion that
‘Wudū’ has no role in religious activities other than prayers. By formally
washing one’s self in the ‘Wudū’, one gets a feeling of spiritual purification
which puts one in an ideal frame of mind to remember Allah and to ward off evil
suggestions of the devil. It is, therefore, highly preferable to attain that
feeling on all occasions of remembering the Almighty---more significantly while
reciting the Holy Qur’ān. To declare it a binding obligation, however, we need a
clear guidance from the Book of Allah or the Sunnah of the Prophet (sws).
The verse of the Holy Qur’ān normally presented to prove
that ‘Wudū’ is a binding pre-condition for touching the Holy Book can be
translated thus: ‘Only they can touch it who are pure’ (56:79). A casual but
objective look at its context, however, would suffice to reveal that the verse
is meant to dispel the doubts raised by the disbelievers that the Qur’ān was
inspired by the devil’s army of jinns. The verse very firmly shrugs off the
charge---as has been done on several occasions elsewhere in the Qur’ān---by
informing the reader that none from the satanic gang was allowed entry to
anywhere near the place of its revelation and that those who were made
responsible to discharge the extremely important job of carrying the revelation
to the Prophet (sws) were purified angels. How can the pre-condition of ‘Wudū’
for touching the Qur’ān be accommodated in this context without completely
disregarding the existence of coherence in its verses as has been unfortunately
done by most people.
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