Menstruation and Religious Duties

:)


Funny topic eh? Appears so... but it is not.


Ask any muslim woman whether she performs religious duty (say prayers) while she is menstruating and she will reply 'No'. The common knowledge is that the state of menstruation is 'unclean' so one has to stay away from religious duties. To approach them one requires 'cleanliness and purity' so when she is menstruating, its good-bye prayers, fasting, pilgrimage etc. This prevents women from performing their religious duties even if they want to. How is it possible that you and God are incommunicado for 5-6 days? If HE is the creator, HE should have seen this coming!


The only trouble for me is.. that it is no where mentioned in the Quran that a woman is not allowed to say her prayers when she is menstruating. Yes menstruation is mentioned in Quran but its only in the context of sexual intercourse and that it should not be done.


2:222 - they ask thee concerning women's courses. Say: They are a hurt and a pollution: So keep away from women in their courses, and do not approach them until they are clean. But when they have purified themselves, ye may approach them in any manner, time, or place ordained for you by Allah.

Now one would assume that since menstruation is 'unclean' so naturally prayers are out of question. Interestingly, the verse that mentions the preparatory phase of prayers also includes the 'state' wherein a prayer is not allowed - and that does not mention menstruation.


05:06 - O ye who believe! when ye prepare for prayer, wash your faces, and your hands (and arms) to the elbows; Rub your heads (with water); and (wash) your feet to the ankles. If ye are in a state of ceremonial impurity, bathe your whole body. But if ye are ill, or on a journey, or one of you cometh from offices of nature, or ye have been in contact with women, and ye find no water, then take for yourselves clean sand or earth, and rub therewith your faces and hands, Allah doth not wish to place you in a difficulty, but to make you clean, and to complete his favour to you, that ye may be grateful.


Checked the highlighted words? It means that if anyone, regardless of gender, has had sexual intercourse then he/she requires bathing. That is the only condition. It no where mentions menstruation.


Check another verse.


4:43 - O ye who believe! Approach not prayers with a mind befogged, until ye can understand all that ye say,- nor in a state of ceremonial impurity (Except when travelling on the road), until after washing your whole body. If ye are ill, or on a journey, or one of you cometh from offices of nature, or ye have been in contact with women, and ye find no water, then take for yourselves clean sand or earth, and rub therewith your faces and hands. For Allah doth blot out sins and forgive again and again.


Still no indication that God has disallowed women not to perform religious duties while menstruating.


Mind you, I am not talking about whether women should pray while in that situation. Not everyone of them can because its too hard for them to do anything but those women who want to perform their religious duties, there should be no 'religious injunction' prohibiting them to do so.


Related Posts


- Can You Touch The Quran When Unclean?
- A Woman's Witness Value Worth half of Men?
- Can A Woman Be An Imam?

Torment of the Grave

Q. Will there be 'azab e qabr'?
A. No.

As muslims we all believe that we will judged for our acts on the Judgment Day. Quran is quite detailed about the Judgment Day and several verses give a portrayal of that day. The earth will become barren and the mountains will be wiped out (18:47), horn will be blown and everyone will rise from their graves and go to their Lord (36:51), the deeds will be evaluated (36:54). We also know that souls will enter heaven in case of death if the person has performed good deeds (36:26).

There is another thing in Islamic literature which deals with Torment of the Grave, 'azaab e qabr'. According to this, the evil doers will really get a thrashing! I mean their grave for one will be so tight that they will not be able to breath, there will be snakes and I do not now what to cause them hurt. On the other hand the doers of good will be treated nicely in their graves.

The thing is.. there is no such thing in Quran regarding torment of the grave. What I get from Quran is that there would be hardly anything like that! Check this verse...

20:102 - The Day when the Trumpet will be sounded: that Day, We shall gather the sinful, blear-eyed (with terror).
20:103 - In whispers will they consult each other: "Yet remained not longer than ten (Days);
20:104 - We know best what they will say, when their leader most eminent in conduct will say: "Ye remained not longer than a day!"

Tell me.. whats the purpose of so great a torment to the evil doers when they do not even remember what happened?! I mean there has to be a purpose for the torment right? If you keep torturing me the whole night and the next morning I don't remember a thing... isn't that quite helpful for me?

There will be no such thing as torment of the grave because God has already stated that He will judge the deeds on a specific day called Judgment Day. I understand the reason for all such stuff as this become sort of moral suasion for the believers to do good deeds. Though there will be no such thing.

Comments?

Quacks On Air - Religious Ones

Have you ever seen a program on Haq TV, called Fiqh un Nissa hosted by a young lady all wrapped up in black and only her eyes revealing? I like her you know :p .. notwithstanding the solutions she provides to the female callers regarding sharia. The solutions usually.. are not easily digestible by soul like me. But she.. builds in me a sense of.. curiosity! :p (Note: I have no intention whatsoever to disrespect her because of her opinions!)

The other day, she was discussing something related to 'Mehrem' and 'na mehrem' (acquaintance and non-acquaintances). The usual practice is that when you leave for Hajj or Umra, you are not allowed to go alone if you are a woman. You must have someone alongside you either husband or someone as 'mehrem' in form of brother, father, son(?) and whatever that comes under the category of 'mehrem'. I honestly do not have a clue because I think this 'mehrem' thingy is just a restriction on women. Here is the definition that I got..

The term “Mehrem” means a male relative who is religiously banned from marrying that subject woman under any circumstances. In Islam, a Mehrem is a female’s father, brother, son, maternal or paternal uncle, grandfather or nephew. A blood relation or a suckling relation makes the subject man a “Mehrem” i.e. a son( brother, father, uncle) by birth or a suckling son(brother, father, uncle).

So she was telling a caller that she (caller) cannot go alone for Hajj because its not allowed and she'll be committing a disobedience to Prophet Muhammad as he prohibited so. (lovely) So the solution she provided went like this. She can marry a person! Now that her husband will be alongside her so she can go on Hajj! After she is done performing Hajj, she can take divorce from him! (whoa!) If she thinks he will not let her go so easy, she can write for a right of divorce in marriage contract! (please tell me that I heard it wrong)

Man O man! Why do I like her so much?!

Being a person associated with religion somehow gives you a clean chit to do anything and say anything you like especially when it comes to Islam and that too if you are in Pakistan. I remember when Womens Protection Bill was at the height of its implementation, Qazi Hussein Ahmad's daughter (Rahila Qazi?) was in a discussion panel being hosted by Talat Hussain of Aaj Tv. When he asked her where is raped mentioned in Quran, she said it is mentioned in Quran and quoted 24:33

24:33 - And let those who do not find the means to marry keep chaste until Allah makes them free from want out of His grace. And (as for) those who ask for a writing from among those whom your right hands possess, give them the writing if you know any good in them, and give them of the wealth of Allah which He has given you; and do not compel your slave girls to prostitution, when they desire to keep chaste, in order to seek the frail good of this world's life; and whoever compels them, then surely after their compulsion Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

and I was like.. what the hell. Where does it mention rape?! Nobody told her that she was wrong! and people must have believed her because she was in burqa and was daughter of a religious scholar/ politician! they would not believe me!

P.S: To find the exact meaning of 'mehrem', I searched Google and the search came up with this.

1. *MEHREM: Someone who has to accompany you and your lover when going out, usually the girl's brother or friend, just to make sure there's no funny business. (Foreigners Guide to Egypt)

2. Allah told us muslima's in his book, not to dance in front of not mehrem men. Not to sing for not mehrem men. To cover your body and hair for the not mehrem. (Ruby on Oghnia.com)

3. C) Call the non-mehrem "brother" so this prevents the shytan from coming in between. .... Ask Allah for forgiveness, and stop chatting with any non-mehrem. (Sister Area - Chatting: Footsteps of the Shytan)

Rape and Adultery Differentiated

Strange as the title may sound, this is actually true. In Pakistan, there was no distinction between rape and adultery (or so the Islamic experts would have us believe) because in Quran there is no distinction! (Read my post Quran & Laws Related to Rape in Pakistan)

Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), a constitutional body, which deals with legal Islamic issues has ruled that both these situations are different and so the requirement imposed upon Pakistani women by the military dictatorship of General Ziaul Haq that they should bring four witnesses in case they get raped! and if if they do not bring forth witnesses then charges of adultery will filed against them! is not valid.

Read my previous posts Womens Protection Bill and Islam and Womens Protection Bill on these issues.

Sanity has prevailed and now Rape and Adultery will be treated differently. A woman will not be required to bring in four witnesses in case she files a case for rape and she can not be prosecuted for charges of adultery if she cannot manage 4 witnesses as the previous clause required.

Thank God for that!

'Veil'

Islam does not enjoin any particular dress for men and women as according to Quran the best dress is that of Taqwa (7:26) i.e. of righteoussness/ modesty. Only one verse talks of specifics and that is (24:31) which states what areas should be covered whereas (33:59) does not talk of 'veil' as specific dress rather a garment that would cover a woman's body.

Whenever it is said that 'veil' is not mentioned in Islam, it is assumed that one is proposing that veil/ covering or protection of any sort should be abandoned. A sort of clash between secular and islamists camps. This is not the case at all as no one is suggesting that they be done away with. Clothing and subsequently 'veil' are all cultural issues. Muslims in Indonesia, Pakistan , Saudi Arabia and North Africa dress differently and accordingly to their culture. The Tuareg of West Africa, mainly muslims, have the most distinct symbol of veil called Tagelmust. Its a blue indigo coloured veil and interestingly 'men' use veil and women do not! this does not make them 'non-muslims'.

Quran does not go into specifics of dress because this would be illogical in the diverse multi-cultured world. So if anyone wants to use burqa/ veil they are more than welcome but it should not be imposed upon people as specifics of God which obviously it is not. A dress should conform to norms of decency (as stated in Quran) irrespective of 'what' it actually is.

Apostasy

Here we go again. An Afghan muslim converted to christianity. As usual.. all hell broke loose. Death Fatwas galore. Hell hath no fury like a berserk muslim :p

Frankly.. I was not robbed of my possessions (jewels included) when I heard that a person has converted to another religious faith. But all the hullabaloo regarding conversion.. must be something in it. Well in fact there is...

Muslims believe that according to Sharia (Muslim Law derived from Quran and acts of Prophet Muhammad) whoever converts to another religious faith from Islam... has to be killed. Good Lord have mercy. They say that Prophet Muhammad cited the above mentioned prescription for converts.

Being a muslim, I have some "issues" as usual.

1. Islam (religion) is of God and humans are supposed to follow it.
2. Only God decides what is good and what is right.
3. Humans have no right to interpret/ explain/ issue fatwas etc
4. Even the Prophet was told to follow what was revealed to him (Quran) and not to come up with his own additions (Quran.69:44-48)

So why not convert to other religion? the person will go to hell and not heaven? only muslims allowed to enter heaven? (read my previous post of November 2005 on this).

Secondly. Judgement Day is to be presided over by His majesty and He will be asking questions regarding faith and deeds. I can understand humans dealing with deeds of other humans in this world because standards are set of what is right and what is wrong but when it comes to faith.. how can one be so sure about himself that he decides fates of other people on it? Is he correct and others wrong? Let the faith question be dealt by God..

There is a verse in Quran which states this beautifully. It says..

[2:256] Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from Error: whoever rejects evil and believes in Allah hath grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks. And Allah heareth and knoweth all things