and whatever requirements of purification he cannot fulfil are waived for him. The same applies to someone who can circumambulate only while riding or being carried, or who cannot stone the pillars, and similar cases: he appoints a proxy for what he cannot perform and undertakes Hajj in person.

As for prayer during menstruation, a woman has no need to perform it, since her prayers on the remaining days suffice. Thus, when she experiences non-menstrual bleeding, she is commanded to pray despite that bleeding and despite the possibility that she may be praying during menstruation. Were it not for her valid excuse, the discharge of that blood and the physical impurity it causes her would invalidate her prayer. The Lawgiver has therefore distinguished in this matter between someone with a valid excuse and someone without one. Accordingly, if a woman experiencing non-menstrual bleeding can purify herself and pray when the bleeding stops, she must do so. Prayer while the bleeding continues has been permitted only out of necessity.

If it is said:

“The obligation to pray could have been waived for someone in a state of major ritual impurity following sexual activity, a woman experiencing non-menstrual bleeding, and others in similar circumstances, just as it was waived for a menstruating woman, with their prayers on the remaining days sufficing. Since the Lawgiver commanded a woman experiencing non-menstrual bleeding to pray, but not a menstruating woman, this shows that menstruation is incompatible with prayer under all circumstances. Likewise, it is incompatible with circumambulation, which is akin to prayer.”

The reply is:

For someone in a state of major ritual impurity following sexual activity, and others in similar circumstances, the condition necessitating purification does not persist. Rather, he is like a menstruating woman whose bleeding has ceased, and he is able to perform one of the two forms of purification. As for a woman experiencing non-menstrual bleeding, if the obligation to pray were waived for her, it would necessarily be waived forever. Since her state of ritual impurity is continuous, she can pray only while in that state, so the obligation of purification is waived for her. This is therefore evidence that