He said, ‘Your menstruation is not in your hand.’”

Maymūnah, the Prophet’s wife, said:

“The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, would rest his head in the lap of one of us and recite the Quran while she was menstruating. One of us would also take his prayer mat to the mosque and spread it out while she was menstruating.”

This was narrated by al-Nasā’ī. Abū Dāwūd narrated from ‘Ā’ishah that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“I do not permit a person in a state of major ritual impurity or a menstruating woman to be in the mosque.”

Ibn Mājah narrated it from Umm Salamah. The authenticity of both reports has been questioned. Most scholars, including al-Shāfi‘ī, Ahmad, and others, therefore distinguished between passing through the mosque and remaining there, reconciling the hadiths. Some, such as Abū Hanīfah and Mālik, prohibited a menstruating woman from both remaining there and passing through.

Others did not prohibit her from being in the mosque. They may cite as evidence the words of Allah Most High:

“Nor in a state of major ritual impurity, except when passing through.”

Ahmad and others permitted a person in a state of major ritual impurity to remain there after performing ablution, based on what he and others narrated from ‘Atā’ ibn Yasār, who said:

“I saw men among the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, sitting in the mosque while in a state of major ritual impurity, once they had performed ablution as for prayer.”

The reason for this—and Allah knows best—is that the mosque is the dwelling place of the angels, and the angels do not enter a house in which there is a person in a state of major ritual impurity, as reported from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, in the Sunan collections. For this reason, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, forbade a person in a state of major ritual impurity to sleep until