[Faith-talk] Menstruation Treatment in Islam.

[Mostafa]

Dear all, peace be with you.

Today I would like to spend some time educating the masses about the 
juristic verdicts in Islam regarding women conditions in menstruation 
periods.

Please note; I am quite aware about the sensitivity of the subject.

I understand that it is quite unusual to discuss something like this in 
public.

The purpose of writing this essay is essentially educational, it aims to 
critically enlighten the minds about the principles of Islamic Shariah and 
how it leniently  treats women in one of their extremely private matters.

This episode is beneficial for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

So let us get started by the definition of menstruation.

Menstruation is the monthly discharge of blood from the uterus of 
nonpregnant women from puberty to menopause.

It usually starts out ranging from ages 12 to 15, it visits the woman on a 
monthly basis, and it lasts for 5 days to one week on average.

During this period of time, there are juristic verdicts and ritual rulings 
regarding women in Islamic Shariah.

Before I dive into that, I must plainly emphasize, that menstruation is not 
a sign of denigrating women as some ignorants like to misinterpret it.

It is not more than a physical phenomenon, and it is treated respectfully 
within Islam as we will illustrate.

So, let us commence with the juristic verdicts regarding women menstruation 
and worship.

Allah has commanded women to temporarily suspend the following acts of 
worship during menstruation.

1; Women ought to temporarily suspend praying during menstruation.

Muslims have to pray 5 times a day.

And one of the most important stipulations to establish the genuineness of 
prayer in Islam is the physical purity.

Naturally during menstruation, women are physically impure and sequentially, 
they are temporarily exempted from praying.

That does not put them in a lower level of piety as some ignorant people 
think.

I even was asked by  lay women about that.

I emphasize again, there is no such mythical beliefs regarding women 
menstruation in Islam.

The point that prayer requires physical purity, and she is unable to provide 
that at the moment, consequently, she is religiously exempted.

Does the woman has to indemnify for the days she suspended praying?

Well, you can basicly imagine the dramatically difficult situation if she 
really had to.

If she had to indemnify her prayers within five days menstruation for 
instance, that would be calculated 25 prayers total, 5 prayers for each day.

    Is that fair?, Is that easy?

That is not fair nor easy.

Islam did not command us to worship Allah in order to suffer.

But rather, we are expected to be  relieved.

We seek for spiritual cleansing, and that could not be attained with either 
mental or physical distress.

Consequently, the woman does not have to indemnify her prayers after 
menstruation.

2; Women ought not to fast if their menstruation occurred in Ramadan.

Just like the prayer, fasting demands the stipulation of physical purity and 
thus, the woman has to temporarily suspend this act of worship for the 
menstruation period.

She has to accurately calculate the days in which she broke the fast, 
because she is obliged to indemnify that later on.

The reason of why she has to indemnify the fasting not the prayer is quite 
logical.

Indemnifying the fasting does not require complex of calculations unlike the 
prayer.

  Thus, it does not demand further efforts unlike the prayer.

She can indemnify the fast either individually or collectively, depending on 
her circumstances.

3; Women ought not to physically touch or hold the Koran in menstruation.

The Koran is considered to be the literal speech of Allah and thus, if 
either the man or the woman are about to approach it, they have to 
physically be clean.

The woman is disallowed to touch the Koran or to have any physical contact 
with its scripture during her menstruation.
There are some minor details regarding this segment, and they were attended 
for clarification.

I kindly ask  Muslim women to thoroughly concentrate here.

Question; Can she read the Koran in a digital format?

There are particular preconditions to that.

1; The digital format has to be stored in a portable device that is not 
designed to specifically contain the Koran.

So on either her iPhone or iPad would be legit, but if the device is 
intended to be Koranic by definition, it is an electronic device aimed to 
store the Koran exclusively, that would be treated as the Koran there, it is 
encrypted, but it has a digital presence and sequentially, it is   strictly 
prohibited to be felt or held during menstruation.

And by analogy, any tapes, desk or CD that has the Koran only stored on it 
are consistently associated within that category.

    Notice, if the Koran she reads is in English or any other language, that 
would be juristically treated as translation or commentary, not the actual 
divine revelation.

Sequentially, she can licitly read it even during her menstruation.

The one that is specifically forbidden from approaching during menstruation 
is the actual Koran as the Muslim masses would identify it in its eloquently 
notable rhetoric in classical Arabic.

Can the woman in menstruation recite the Koran verbally?

As long as she does not touch the physical scripture of the Koran, she 
licitly can.


There are additional verdicts regarding women menstruation in their 
relationship with their spouses.

In Islam, Muslim women could not be engaged in intercourse with their 
spouses in menstruation.

Allah explicitly forbids that in the Koran, and He described it as harmful.

That does not mean the perfect abstention from any relations with her 
husband, she still can have intimate relations with him.

The total disruption is not intended.

It is only the actual intercourse that is forbidden during menstruation for 
their healthcare.

But still, the man can act romantically with his wife, and in her 
menstruation phase in particular, she desperately  demands further kindness.

We have authenticated narrations that tells us about how prophet Muhammad 
used to treat his wives during their menstruations.

If any of his wives is in menstruation, he would await until she drinks some 
water, and then, he would take the cup from her, whilst following the spot 
of her lips, in which he would proceed to drink from.

It signifys the preception of his empathy to the condition she has.

He is telling her romantically that I am not disappointed with that.

You can treat this essay as instructions manual.

Feel free to share it with whom it might be useful to, and you do not have 
even to get back to me before doing so.

   I believe I sufficiently covered the mainstream peer on the subject.

I apologize for the sensitivity of the subject.

I intended to provide knowledge and enlightenment on that regard.

I did not intend to offend your modesty.

Please, you may accept my apology for any unintended inconvenience.

Please, you may write me back if you have any questions farther to the basic 
information this paper contains, or if you demand any clarifications to the 
advanced legal expressions used in here.

I can explain them either one by one or in glossary order.

I hope that was helpful, and may Allah grant us the useful knowledge.

Peace be with you.