“O Messenger of Allah?” He said, “Is it not that when she menstruates, she neither prays nor fasts?” They replied, “Indeed.” He said, “That is the deficiency in her religion.” (1)
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Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) was asked, “Why does a menstruating woman make up the fast but not make up the prayer?” She replied, “This would happen to us during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and we were instructed to make up the fast but were not instructed to make up the prayer.” (2)
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There is consensus on this matter.
If it is asked: What is the wisdom behind her making up the fast but not making up the prayer?
We say: The wisdom is the statement of the Messenger ﷺ, as mentioned above. The scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) have also derived a wisdom for this, saying: Fasting comes only once a year, whereas prayer is repeated many times. Thus, requiring her to make up the fast is easier for her; moreover, if she did not make it up, she would have no fasting.
Prayer, on the other hand, is repeated frequently, and if we obliged her to make it up, that would be burdensome for her.
Furthermore, she will not be deprived of prayer altogether because of its frequent recurrence: if she does not have it at the beginning of the month, she will have it at the end of it. (3)
His statement, “Neither is valid from her,” means that neither fasting nor prayer is valid from her. Thus, if she remembered a missed prayer from before her menstruation and then made it up while menstruating,