circumambulating the House, because menstruation prevents her from remaining in the mosque, and circumambulation entails remaining there.

Moreover, menstruation is a state of major ritual impurity, so this cannot be used as evidence that someone in a state of minor ritual impurity is not permitted to circumambulate the House. You yourselves agree that a person in a state of minor ritual impurity may remain in the mosque, whereas a menstruating woman may not remain there. Thus, in our view, the basis for this prohibition is remaining in the mosque.

As for the hadith, “Circumambulation of the House is prayer” (1), it may be answered in two ways:

1. It is a statement of Ibn Abbas, and it cannot authentically be traced back to the Prophet ﷺ.

2. Its meaning is undermined, for if we were to take its wording at face value, then, according to the principles of legal theory, it would entail that all the rulings of prayer apply to circumambulation except speaking. One of the principles of legal theory is that an exception indicates generality: when a general statement is made and then an exception is specified, the general statement includes every individual case except what has been excluded. Yet when we consider circumambulation, we find that it differs from prayer in most of its rulings besides speaking: eating and drinking are permitted during it; it does not require the opening declaration of Allah’s greatness, the closing salutation, or recitation; nor is it invalidated by actions and the like. The Prophet’s ﷺ words are definitive and cannot be contradicted. Since this statement is undermined by these matters, and we find these exceptions, we know that it cannot be authentically attributed to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

This is one of the arguments cited to establish the weakness of the hadith.