. Say, ‘It is harm, so keep away from women during menstruation.’”

He did not say “during it,” thereby linking the ruling requiring abstention to menstruation itself and indicating that it is the reason for abstention. He said:

“Say, ‘It is harm,’”

rather than “Menstruation is harm,” because using the pronoun here follows the normal pattern of expression. Moreover, repeating the noun would have made the wording cumbersome, since it would have occurred three times. Using the explicit noun in the command to abstain was preferable to using a pronoun, as it conveys that the ruling is linked to its being menstruation. This differs from His words:

“Say, ‘It is harm,’”

which state a fact: those addressed know that what makes it harmful is precisely its being menstruation. By contrast, linking the ruling to it is something that can be known only through revealed law. Reflect on this.