Water in Cultural Perspective with Special Reference to Islam

Water is regarded as the ultimate source of life in all the world religions including Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism. Apart from being considered as a major source of survival, the religious perspectives on the water are diverse and unique and play an important part in religious traditions and rituals. The most common characteristic of water to be found common in all religions is the source of purity and is reflected in most of the Hindu rituals as well as Baptism (Christianity), ablution (Islam), Mikvah (Judaism). Majority of the known works on the water are from economic and technological perspectives, whereas fundamentally it is the culture which defines water usage. The present chapter provides a run-through of water symbolism of world religions followed by focusing on the various facets of water in Islam. It explains the numerous themes of water, which prevail in the Islamic world on the basis of the two major relatable sources: the holy Quran and the hadiths.