Islamic and Hindu Customs Wipe Out Need for Toilet Paper
(Left) This spray nozzle, like a portable bidet and also called a bum gun, attaches to a toilet. Creative Commons image. (Right) A water pot often called a lota (also called a badna) commonly found in South Asian bathrooms for after-toilet use. Creative Commons image.
As a result of pandemic panic-buying, toilet paper – not essential to sustaining human life – became one of the first commodities that many American stores couldn’t stock quickly enough to meet demand. You’d think coronavirus is a gastrointestinal disorder.
In the event of a sustained toilet paper shortage, some are flush with other plans, like resorting to the use of newspapers (for those still subscribing) or strips of old T-shirts, as some woodsmen survivalists have suggested. But there is another way to butt out of the toilet paper frenzy— by following ancient Islamic and Hindu customs.
Millions of Muslims and Hindus around the world were bowled over by this need to buy toilet paper since they typically wash their backsides with water. According to Sahih al-Bukhari, one of the six significant Hadith collections in Sunni Islam, the left hand should be used for anal ablution after defecation. The use of the right hand for cleaning genitalia is discouraged. Manusmriti, one of the oldest collected texts of Hindu laws, suggests that only water can adequately cleanse the organ from which feces and urine are ejected.
For anal cleaning, many Muslims keep a small vessel of water in their bathrooms, called a lota in South Asia. Alternatively, bidet spray nozzles and hoses are attached to the sides of the commodes.
The lota, according to Islamic rules, is held with the right hand, while the left helps pass water over the anus. The objective behind this practice, Muslims believe, is the emphasis of Islam on keeping the body adequately clean.
“Islam places great emphasis on personal hygiene,” said Maulana Imran Ahmad, an Islamic scholar in India. “Muslims are required to clean themselves well with water before offering prayers. Cleanliness is half of the faith, according to the teachings of Prophet Mohammad.”
After visiting the toilet, a person is required to clean his or her private parts thoroughly with water to keep the body clean, Ahmad added. Quoting the Holy Quran (9:108), he said, “Allah loves those who keep themselves clean and pure.” Another Hadith or saying advises that when leaving the toilet, leave with the right foot and say a prayer: "Praise be to Allah who relieved me of the filth and gave me relief."
“Islam teaches that the condition of the body affects the condition of the spirit, so it’s essential to be clean at all times — especially before offering prayers,” wrote Javaria Akbar in VICE. “To me, using tissue paper alone to wipe clean my crack is like vacuuming an entire house with a Dustbuster—you're inevitably going to miss bits. And missing bits, as a Muslim, is not cool,” she added.
According to Bukhari, when Prophet Muhammad went to the toilet he said, "In the name of Allah, O Allah! I seek refuge/protection with/in You from all offensive and wicked things.” Some alternate translations say "from evil deeds and evil spirits" and "from the male and female unclean spirits.” In some traditions, Muslims are advised to say this supplication before entering the bathroom.
In the Muslim and majority-Hindu regions of South Asia, Sikhs and Jains (offshoots of Hinduism), as well as Zoastrians, Buddhists and Christians also use water, but as a cultural custom that does not derive from their faith practice.
Beyond South and Southeast Asia, the use of water for self-cleaning is also common in the Middle East and Europe, where bidets shoot jets of water to clean your behind off instead of toilet paper. Although in recent years, some American households have included bidets, Americans have long been resistant to bidets, sometimes repulsed as a French snobbery or just plain dirty.
“Americans were introduced to bidets on a broad scale during World War II when troops were stationed in Europe,” wrote Maria Teresa Hart in The Atlantic, adding that American soldiers visiting brothels would often see bidets in the bathrooms, so they began to associate these basins with sex work.
“Given America's puritanical past, it makes sense that, once back home, service members would feel squeamish presenting these fixtures to their homeland,” she wrote. “But even before the war, bidets were linked to sex and scandal.”
The hoarding of toilet paper in reluctance to using alternatives swelled its demand to unforeseen heights in March. According to the data collected by IRI, a Chicago-based market research firm that tracks retail sales based on the barcodes on products, Americans have spent over $1.4 billion on toilet paper in the past four weeks, a 102 percent increase from the same period a year before.
The toilet paper panic has led to people flushing things like baby wipes, napkins and paper towels, resulting in blockages in drainage pipes, according to a spate of reports across the country.
Meanwhile, online Google searches for “bidet” in the U.S. reached an all-time high in March, according to Google Trends. Hello Tushy, which makes a high-market $79 bidet attachment for toilets, said its sales spiked in mid-March. These trends suggest that at least some Americans might be thinking of using water for cleaning their behind.
Islamic toilet etiquette prescribes several other rules for Muslims regarding toilet hygiene that would prevent the spread of coronavirus: eating anything while on the toilet is forbidden, for example. The rules also instruct silence while in the bathroom, so no talking on the phone. Reading and greeting others is also not to be done near the toilet. It is also frowned upon to remain inside the bathroom more than the necessary time.
Anal hygiene has evolved with the evolution of human beings. People in the stone age, as the name suggests, used rocks and stones to wipe their behind. The ancient Greeks, who were far ahead of stone agers in terms of art, philosophy and science, used shreds of clay or pottery. Romans used a wiping instrument called a tersorium, essentially a sponge on a stick. While wealthy Romans could afford a personal tersorium, peasants had to share it in their communal toilets.
While water was used for cleaning in different Islamic and South and Southeast Asian countries across religions, Americans saw a revolution in anal hygiene during the 19th century when conventional toilet paper was introduced during the Industrial Revolution.
With the shortage of tissue paper in the market amid the pandemic, there might be another stage of evolution awaiting in the anal hygiene of the U.S. – the use of water.
Avinash Giri is a Delhi-based reporter and Poynter-Koch fellow for Religion Unplugged.