Back to search

Does a woman's refraining from prayer and fasting during menstruation diminish her humanity or insult her?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

A Muslim must obey Allah's commands and abstain from His prohibitions, whether they understand the wisdom behind them or not, as Allah Almighty says: "It is not for a believing man or a believing woman, when Allah and His Messenger have decreed a matter, that they should have any option in their decision." A menstruating woman has been commanded to abandon prayer and fasting. A woman is prohibited from praying during menstruation by textual evidence and scholarly consensus, due to the absence of the condition of purity, as the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "Prayer is not accepted without purification." As for fasting, some scholars have held that prohibiting a menstruating woman from it is not rationally comprehensible, while others, like Al-Bujairimi, believe that it is rationally comprehensible because menstruation weakens the body, and fasting does likewise, and their combination is harmful to the body.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

Read the full answer on Ftawy