ten days. Al-Awzāʿī, however, held that if the woman washes her private part with water, intercourse is permissible—meaning any menstruating woman as soon as her bleeding stops—and this was also the view of Abū Muḥammad Ibn Ḥazm.
The reason for their divergence is the range of possible meanings in the Almighty’s words:
“When they have purified themselves, then approach them from where Allah has commanded you.” (al-Baqarah 2:222)
Does “purified” (ṭuhr) here mean the cessation of menstrual blood, or purification by water? And if it means purification by water, does it refer to washing the whole body or only the private part? In both Arabic usage and the legal parlance of the Sharīʿah, the term ṭuhr is a shared designation applied to all three senses.
The majority favour their position because the verb pattern tafuʿʿul (tatahharna) is normally used for acts performed by morally accountable persons, not for occurrences beyond their control. Thus the phrase “fa-idhā tatahharna” more clearly denotes washing with water than the mere cessation of bleeding, and the clearer meaning must be adopted unless evidence demands otherwise.
Abū Ḥanīfah, by contrast, preferred his view because the verb form yafʿulna in the clause “ḥattā yaṭhurna” (until they are pure) is more obvious in referring to the end of menstruation than to ritual washing.
As you can see, the issue can bear either interpretation.
Therefore, anyone who understands the word ṭuhr in “until they are pure” to bear one of these three meanings must understand the same meaning in “when they have purified themselves.” It is impossible—or at least exceedingly difficult—to read two different senses into the same verse so that “yaṭhurna” would signify cessation of bleeding while “tatahharna” would signify washing, as some Mālikīs do when arguing for Mālik.
For it is not the Arabs’ custom to say, “Do not give so-and-so a dirham until he enters the house; when he enters the mosque, give him a dirham.” Rather, they would say, “When he enters the house, give him a dirham,” because the second clause confirms the sense of the first.
Thus whoever interprets “Do not approach them until they are pure” (2:222) as referring to the cessation of blood, and “when they have purified themselves” as referring to washing, is like the person who says, “Do not give so-and-so a dirham until he enters the house; when he enters the mosque, give him a dirham”—a construction unintelligible in Arabic unless something has been suppressed.
One would then have to posit an ellipsis such as: “Do not approach them until they are pure and have washed; when they have washed, approach them from where Allah has commanded you.” But such an ellipsis is far-fetched, and no evidence supports it except the claim that the manifest sense of tatahharna is ritual bathing. This, however, is countered by the manifest absence of any ellipsis in the verse, for ellipsis is figurative speech, while construing words in their literal sense is more evident than construing them figuratively.
Accordingly, when the mujtahid reaches this point in his inquiry he must weigh these two apparent readings; whichever he judges the stronger he must adopt. (By “the two apparent readings” I mean weighing the clarity of “fa-idhā tatahharna” in denoting bathing with water against the clarity of the verse’s containing no ellipsis) if he wishes to interpret the word “tatahharna” as—