Fatwa n° 39

Category: Purity Fatwas- Menstruation and puerperal

Concerning the purification bath for the woman
in menses who gets into a “Janâba” (impurity due to sexual intercourse or wet dreams)

The Question:

If a woman, in her menstrual cycle, gets into a “Janâba”⁽¹⁾ must she have a greater ablution? Or does she wait till she gets clean from the menses and have two greater ablutions?

The answer:

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds and peace and blessings be upon him who was sent by God as a mercy to the worlds and upon his kins, friends and brothers up to the doomsday, this being so expressed:

 What appears from the hadith texts (the Prophet’s sayings) is that the woman must have a greater ablution if she gets into a “Janâba” in general be it in purity state or in menses according to his saying صلَّى الله عليه وسلَّم to Um Suleim, Abû Talha’s wife, as she asked him: “Does the woman have to take a purification bath if she has wet dream?”He then said: “yes, if she sees “the water (liquid)”⁽²⁾. So the purification bath was made dependent on the seeing of the water (liquid). And he didn’t go into any details about hypothetical cases. This meant that it covered both cases if we apply the rule: leaving detail in the hypothetical case has to be brought down to the position of a general meaning in its statement. And thus said `Atâ' and An-Nakha`î and Al-Hassan Al-Basrî and others. And concerning this question there are surely other statements. This being said, the woman, while she is having a purification bath, doesn’t have to undo her hair, she has but to make the water reach the roots of her hair.

And all science and knowledge belong to Allah may exalted be he , and our last invocation is to praise Allah, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings of Allah be upon our prophet Muhammad and his kins, friends, and  brothers up to the doomsday.

Algiers, Safar 24^th, 1427
Corresponding to March 24^th 2006