he has performed ablution. Yahyā ibn Sa‘īd narrated from Hishām ibn ‘Urwah, who said: My father related to me from ‘Ā’ishah that she used to say:

“If any of you has intercourse with his wife and then wishes to sleep, he should not sleep until he has performed ablution as for prayer, for he does not know—his soul may be taken during his sleep.”

Another hadith states:

“For if he dies, the angels will not attend his funeral.”

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, instructed a person in a state of major ritual impurity to perform ablution before eating, drinking, or having intercourse again. This indicates that, when he performs ablution, major ritual impurity is removed from the parts of the body washed in ablution. His major ritual impurity thus no longer remains in full, although some ritual impurity remains, just as someone in a state of minor ritual impurity has an impurity less than major ritual impurity. Although his remaining impurity is greater than minor ritual impurity, he is still in a lesser state than someone whose major ritual impurity remains in full. The angels therefore do not refrain from being present with him, and for this reason he may sleep and remain in the mosque. This indicates that major ritual impurity is divisible: it may be removed from some parts of the body while remaining in others, as the majority of scholars hold.

As for a menstruating woman, her ritual impurity is continuous, and she cannot purify herself in a way that stops it from continuing. She is therefore excused with regard to remaining in the mosque, sleeping, eating, and other such activities. When she needs to do these things, she is not barred from them as a person in a state of major ritual impurity is. Hence, the stronger of the two scholarly views is that she is not prohibited from reciting the Quran when she needs to do so. This is Mālik’s position and one of the two views within al-Shāfi‘ī’s school; it is also mentioned as a view reported from Ahmad. She needs to recite it and cannot purify herself as a person in a state of major ritual impurity can, even though her ritual impurity is more severe than