that a woman once asked the Prophet about the bath required after menstruation. He explained to her how to wash and said, “Take a piece of cloth scented with musk and cleanse yourself with it.” She asked, “How should I cleanse myself?” He replied, “Cleanse yourself with it!” She asked again, “How?” He said, “Glory be to Allah—cleanse yourself!” I (Aishah) therefore pulled her toward me and said, “Use it to follow the trace of the blood.” Reported by al-Bukhari 1/229-230, Muslim 1/179, and others. In short, nothing in the evidence confines the meaning of His words, “fa-idha tatahharna” (when they have purified themselves), to full ghusl alone. The verse is unrestricted and includes the three meanings mentioned above; whichever of them the woman who has become clean adopts, she becomes lawful to her husband. I know of no other Sunnah text on this issue, whether prohibitive or permissive, except the marfuʿ hadith from Ibn Abbas: “If one of you approaches his wife while she is menstruating, let him give one dinar in charity; and if he has intercourse with her after the bleeding has ceased but before she performs ghusl, let him give half a dinar.” This hadith, however, is weak, for it contains ʿAbd al-Karim ibn Abi al-Mukhariq Abu Umayyah, whose weakness is unanimously agreed upon. Anyone who thought he was ʿAbd al-Karim al-Jarzi Abu Saʿid al-Harrani—the reliable narrator—has erred, as I have shown in Sahih Sunan Abi Dawud, no. 258. Moreover, the text itself is so inconsistent that it could not be used as proof even if its isnad were sound—how much less so when its chain is weak!