‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’ is an Indian Hindi-language comedy-drama film released in 2017.
Ha Ha…. Relax Buddy. I don’t even watch movies, let alone review them. 😊
Actually, a few months back, I was sitting with some family-friends when they were discussing this Bollywood movie ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’. Hence, I know its plot.
The film is a satirical comedy in support of government campaigns to improve the sanitation conditions, with an emphasis on the eradication of open defecation, especially in rural areas. The movie revolves around a love story in an Indian village where people defecate in the open and don’t have toilets in their homes. Unfortunately, or fortunately, the heroine of this love story couldn’t digest the idea of open defecation in her lover-turned-husband’s home.
Despite hero’s repeated attempts to convince his heroine to give up her stubbornness about needing a toilet, she remains steadfast. Ultimately, her husband’s inability to provide her a toilet ruined all their love chemistry. Heroine files for a divorce in the local court citing the unavailability of a toilet in her husband’s house as the primary reason for seeking the divorce.
I had not the least interest to know what happened next. (Perhaps I know that Bollywood movies usually have a happy ending). However, it got me thinking about the reality of life. No matter how colorful your love life is, the basic needs of life are still the priority. They might take over their toll on your love chemistry at any moment.
Though quite profound, this thought didn’t provoke me to write anything. It was something else that brought me back to this.
Sometime back I started learning the ‘Fiqh of Purification’ from A to Z. Under that, I came across a Hadeeth regarding the matter of relieving oneself.
It was narrated from the companion of Prophet (PBUH) Abu Huraira (RA):
Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said: “Safeguard yourselves from the two matters which cause accursing that befalls the one who relieves himself on people’s path-ways and under the shades.” [Reported by Muslim].
SubhanAllaah! May Allaah bless one of my favourite teachers, Dr.Farhat Hashmi, a prominent religious scholar of our times, for raising an important question for all of us from this Hadeeth.
Let me explain you a bit about the narration first. The person has been cursed who relieves himself on people’s path-ways and under the shades. (But Why?) If we ponder a bit over it, we will get the answer.
In a hot sunny day, the exhausted-you find a shady tree at distance, and you run towards it to get some comfort under its shade. As you reach there, what you find there is – somebody’s poo – Ugh!
Allaah SWT proclaims curse on individual who relieves himself under a shady tree; A tree probably among many others in a wide field, where there are CHANCES that somebody might take refuge; Allaah SWT warns us for taking any risk of spoiling somebody’s comfort with that disgusting sight.
AllaahuAkbar!
Our Deen takes full precaution to give us guidelines so that by any chance we don’t make somebody else’s pleasant moment awkward & bitter. And here we are, deliberately or ignorantly making others’ lives distasteful. Audhubillaah!
SubhanAllaah!
When a movie depicts that lack of proper sanitation can ruin a love-relationship, we agree. Yes, we realise its importance. We take the matter to higher authorities, we give it media attention, and what not…. However, when our Deen tells us etiquettes of sanitation, best ways of relieving oneself, fiqh of cleaning, washing & purification, we laugh. Yes, we laugh at our Deen for discussing such trivial matters.
For me a subject as trivial as toilet given such a high importance as part of our faith** became inspiration for loving my Deen even more. Now, you tell me what better title I could give to this story than……
Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (A Love Story) 😊
Sisterly Yours
