During her menses and at its end, the menstruating woman is governed by a set of detailed rulings found in the Qur’an and the Sunnah:

• First: while menstruating she neither performs the prayer nor observes the fast. The Prophet ﷺ said to Fatimah bint Abi-Hubay sh: “When the menstruation begins, leave off the prayer.” Hence, were a woman to fast or pray during her period, neither her fast nor her prayer would be valid, for the Prophet ﷺ expressly forbade her from doing so, and a prohibition entails invalidity; indeed, in doing so she would be disobedient to Allah and His Messenger.

• Once she has become pure from her menses, she must make up the missed fasts but not the missed prayers, by consensus of the scholars. ʿA ʾishah (d. 58 AH) said: “We used to menstruate during the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and we were commanded to make up the fasts but not commanded to make up the prayers.” This report is agreed upon.

• Additional rulings: she may circumambulate the House (the Kaʿbah); she does not recite the Qur’an; she does not sit in the mosque; and it is forbidden for her husband to have vaginal intercourse with her until the bleeding ceases and she has performed the ritual bath.