so they should not perform Hajj. If, nevertheless, one of them does perform Hajj, she must follow one of the three courses mentioned above, unless she is permitted to perform circumambulation while menstruating. It is clear that she may not be instructed to follow the first course, for it entails such harm to her religious and worldly affairs that it is self-evident that Allah forbids it, let alone commands it.

The second course is likewise impermissible, for three reasons.

First: Allah has not commanded anyone to remain in ihrām until death. Someone prevented from proceeding by an enemy may leave ihrām by scholarly agreement. As for someone prevented by illness or poverty, there is a well-known disagreement. Those who permit him to leave ihrām present no difficulty here. Those who prohibit him from doing so argue that leaving ihrām does not remove the harm caused by illness or poverty, unlike detention by an enemy, since leaving ihrām enables him to return to his homeland. They permit him to do whatever he needs to do of the acts normally prohibited in ihrām. Then, if he misses Hajj, he leaves ihrām by performing an ʿumrah on account of having missed it. Once the sick person recovers, he can proceed; and the poor person’s need for resources to complete his Hajj journey is the same as his need for them to return home. This, then, is their reasoning for not allowing him to leave ihrām. They say that he gains nothing by leaving it.

If this reasoning is sound, it stands; otherwise, the correct view is the first: that he may leave ihrām. This reasoning entails agreement among the imams that whenever remaining in ihrām causes harm that would be removed by leaving it, the person may leave ihrām.