This is one distinction between a menstruating woman’s circumambulation and her prayer. She needs to perform the circumambulation required of her once in a lifetime, having undertaken a long journey, with camels carrying her burdens to a land people could reach only with great hardship. How can her need for this circumambulation be compared to her need for prayer, which she can forgo during menstruation, since the prayers she performs when not menstruating suffice her? It has already been explained that a menstruating woman is not prohibited from reciting the Quran because she needs to do so; her need for this circumambulation is greater still.

If someone says, “She may recite the Quran while in a state of minor ritual impurity, whereas circumambulation requires purification,” the response is: “This is a well-known matter of disagreement among earlier and later scholars. You must therefore provide evidence that minor ritual purification is obligatory for circumambulation.”

Invoking the statement,

“Circumambulation of the House is prayer,”

is a weak argument. At most, it likens circumambulation to prayer in certain rulings; something likened to another is not identical to it in every respect. What is meant is simply that circumambulation resembles prayer in requiring avoidance of prohibited acts that are also forbidden outside prayer. As for the things that invalidate prayer—speaking, eating, drinking, and excessive movement—none of these invalidates circumambulation. They are, however, disliked when there is no need for them, because they distract from its purpose, just as such things are disliked during Quran recitation, supplication, and remembrance of Allah. This is comparable to the Prophet’s saying, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“A servant remains in prayer as long as he is waiting for prayer,”

and his saying: “When one of you sets out for the mosque, he should not interlace his fingers, for he is in prayer.