for a person in ihrām to use items that meet a general human need, such as trousers and leather socks, without owing any expiation according to most scholars, including al-Shāfi‘ī, Ahmad, and the other hadith jurists. This differs from what is needed only in particular circumstances, which is permissible only with expiation. Abū Hanīfah, however, requires expiation in all these cases.

Accordingly, the most that can be said concerning this woman who needs to perform circumambulation is that she owes a sacrificial offering, as is the position of Abū Hanīfah and one of the two views within Ahmad’s school. According to those who regard ritual purity as obligatory, she owes a sacrificial offering when she has no excuse. When she is unable to fulfil this duty, however, even if such an offering is deemed obligatory, that is the utmost that can be required of her. The view more consistent with legal analogy is that she owes no sacrificial offering in a case of necessity.

But to regard this as an obligatory duty whose omission can be compensated for by a sacrificial offering, while maintaining that its obligation is not waived by necessity, contradicts the foundational principles of Islamic law.

This makes it clear that, since some Muslim scholars rule that circumambulation performed by a menstruating woman is valid with a sacrificial offering even when she is not compelled by necessity, the Muslim community has not reached a consensus that, in all circumstances, only circumambulation performed in a state of purity is valid for her. Thus, the opposing scholar who maintains this has neither a scriptural text, nor consensus, nor analogical reasoning to support his position. We have already explained that this position necessarily entails the permissibility of doing so when there is a need. We have also explained that scholars disagree over whether purification from ritual impurity is obligatory for her, and that the view of those who deny its obligation is stronger. The Muslim community has therefore reached no consensus either that ritual purity is obligatory in all circumstances or that any form of purification is a condition for the validity of circumambulation.

As for the point on which I know of no disagreement, it is that she may not perform circumambulation while menstruating if