Indeed, the prohibition of consuming blood and pork is among the most stringent, yet consuming them has been permitted out of necessity. What the Sunnah establishes is that circumambulation is an act of worship occupying an intermediate position between prayer and the other pilgrimage rites. It is superior to the other rites, as menstruating women are forbidden to perform it, while prayer is more complete than it. This is because circumambulation resembles prayer more closely than the other rites do, and because it is confined to the mosque. Because of these two aspects of its sanctity, a menstruating woman is prohibited from performing it. Yet no Sunnah report prohibits someone without ablution from performing it. Whatever is not forbidden to someone without ablution is, with all the more reason, not forbidden to a menstruating woman in cases of necessity, such as reciting the Quran or observing a devotional retreat in the mosque. Even if something is forbidden to her while ritually impure, this does not entail that it remains forbidden in cases of necessity, as with touching a copy of the Quran and other such acts.

Whoever makes circumambulation identical to prayer in its obligations and prohibitions has contradicted the scriptural texts and consensus. No one may invoke anyone’s opinion as proof in disputed matters. Proof consists only of scriptural texts, consensus, and arguments derived from them whose premises are established by scriptural evidence, not by the statements of individual scholars. Scholars’ statements must themselves be supported by scriptural evidence; they cannot be used as evidence against it.

Someone brought up following a particular school, who has become accustomed to it and believes its teachings, but lacks a sound understanding of scriptural evidence and scholarly disagreements, does not distinguish between what has come from the Messenger and been accepted by the Muslim community—and must therefore be believed—and what individual scholars have said. Establishing the proof against such a person is difficult or impossible. Whoever cannot distinguish between these two is not equipped to discuss religious knowledge as scholars do