طهارة
Ṭahārah
The state of purity, and the body of law on ritual and physical cleanliness and the means of attaining it
What it means
Ṭahārah means purity. It covers the removal of impurity from the body, clothes and place of prayer, and the ritual states reached by wuḍūʾ (the minor ablution), ghusl (the full washing) and tayammum (dry ablution with clean earth when water is unavailable, 5:6). Purity is a condition for the validity of the ṣalāh. Books of fiqh usually open with a chapter on purity, because worship depends on it. The Quran says that Allah loves those who purify themselves (2:222), and the Prophet (peace be upon him) is reported in Sahih Muslim to have said that purity is half of faith. The word also names the whole subject of these rules as a branch of the law.
Often misunderstood as
That it means cleanliness, a rendering that leaves out its place as a legal condition of worship.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 38, listed as ṬAHĀRAH. The definition is restated here.