she is able to perform circumambulation in a state of purity. I know of no one who disputes that doing so is forbidden for her and that she sins thereby. Scholars have differed, however, over whether it fulfils her obligation.

According to Abū Hanīfah’s school, it does fulfil her obligation, and this is also one view within Ahmad’s school. In one transmitted report, Ahmad explicitly stated that if a person in a state of major ritual impurity performs circumambulation forgetfully, it fulfils his obligation. Some of his followers restricted this ruling to cases of forgetfulness. Others said that this indicates that ritual purity is not obligatory, for if it were obligatory, it would not be waived through forgetfulness: it belongs to the category of commanded acts, not prohibited acts, just like purification from ritual impurity for prayer.

This differs from avoiding physical impurity during prayer. The apparent position of Ahmad’s school is that someone who prays having forgotten such impurity, or being unaware of it, need not repeat the prayer. This is because it belongs to the category of prohibited acts. If someone does such an act forgetfully or unknowingly, he incurs no sin, and its occurrence is therefore treated as though it had not occurred.

Some of Ahmad’s followers then said that this indicates that, according to this report, he does not regard ritual purity as an integral requirement of circumambulation, but rather as an obligatory duty whose omission is compensated for by a sacrificial offering. They related two reports concerning the validity of a menstruating woman’s circumambulation: according to the first, it is invalid; according to the second, it is valid, and she compensates for the omission with a sacrificial offering. Abū al-Barakāt and others mentioned this.

Likewise, several of his followers explicitly stated that this disagreement concerns purification from menstruation and major ritual impurity, as in Abū Hanīfah’s school. According to this view, the obligation is waived when one is unable to fulfil it, like all other obligations.