of one’s clothing—and of it being acquired through lawful earnings—perfects the heart’s purity and completes it. Hence, if the command is directed first to cleansing the garment, that is a means intended for something beyond itself, and the objective sought for its own sake—the purification of the heart—is even more entitled to be commanded. On the other hand, if the primary injunction concerns the purification of the heart and the refinement of the soul, that aim cannot be fulfilled without clean garments obtained lawfully. Thus the Qur’an points to both ends at once.

The Prophet ﷺ said: “If menstrual blood touches any one of your garments, let her scrape it off, sprinkle it with water, and then pray in it.”

This comes from the narration of Asmāʾ bint Abī Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, who said: A woman asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, “O Messenger of Allah, what should one of us do if menstrual blood soils her garment?” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied…

It was transmitted by Mālik, and from him by al-Bukhārī, Muslim, and Abū Dāwūd through Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, from Fāṭimah bint al-Mundhir ibn al-Zubayr, on her authority.

Al-Bukhārī and Muslim likewise narrated it—as did Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasāʾī, al-Tirmidhī (who declared it sound), al-Dārimī, Ibn Mājah, al-Bayhaqī, al-Ṭayālisī, and Aḥmad—through Hishām and Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, from Fāṭimah, with similar wording.

It is also corroborated by the hadith of Umm Qays bint Miḥṣan, who asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about menstrual blood that stains a garment, and he said: