is, according to him, a requisite for it. Likewise, all those specific characteristics are absent from tawaf: it ends with no taslīm, conversation during it is permissible, and there is no arranging of rows behind an imam. Yet Allah has paired the one who circumambulates the House with the one who prays, both in His Book and in the Sunnah of His Messenger. Nothing, however, has reached us from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—indicating that he instructed people to purify themselves specifically for tawaf. He himself, together with the Companions, used to perform tawaf in a state of purity, and they would then pray the two rakʿahs that follow tawaf— and no one prays except while purified.

The only explicit prohibition concerns the tawaf of a menstruating woman, for he said:

“A menstruating woman performs all the rites except tawaf of the House.”

Some have explained this as being on account of the mosque itself, while others have said it is on account of the tawaf.