الجنابة
al-Janāba
A state of major ritual impurity, and any act that brings it about, which requires a full bath before prayer.
What it means
Janāba is the state of major ritual impurity. A person in this state is called junub, and the Quran says: “If you are in a state of impurity, purify yourselves” (5:6; also 4:43). Faruqi defines the term as any act that breaks the ritual purity of the Muslim, together with the state itself. The jurists specify the causes, chiefly sexual relations and emission, and the remedy is the full bath, ghusl. A person in this state does not pray, touch the Quran in the view of most scholars, or perform the circumambulation of the Kaaba until he has washed. The state is a ritual condition and it carries no moral stain; it is a normal part of married life.
Often misunderstood as
It is mistaken for a sin or for dirt, whereas it is a temporary ritual state that is removed by washing.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 27, listed as AL JANĀBAH. The definition is restated here.