Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allaah have mercy on him) was asked | Daily Dose

Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allaah have mercy on him) was asked: Is it permissible for a menstruating woman to attend halaqahs in the mosque? He replied: It is not permissible for a menstruating woman to stay in the mosque. As for passing through the mosque, there is nothing wrong with that, subject to the condition that there is no risk of the mosque being contaminated with the blood that is coming out of her. If it is not permissible for her to stay in the mosque, it is not permissible for her to go there to listen to halaqahs and recitation of Qur’aan, unless there is a place outside the mosque where the sound can reach via loudspeakers, in which case there is nothing wrong with her sitting there to listen to the dhikr. There is nothing wrong with a woman listening to dhikr and recitation of Qur’aan, as it is proven that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) used to lay his head in ‘Aa’ishah’s lap and recite Qur'aan when she was menstruating. But it is not permissible for a menstruating woman to go to the mosque and stay there to listen to dhikr or Qur’aan recitation. Hence when the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) heard, during the Farewell Pilgrimage, that Safiyyah was menstruating, he said: “Has she detained us?” because he thought that she had not done tawaaf al-ifaadah, but they said that she had already done it. This indicates that it is not permissible to stay in the mosque even for acts of worship. And it is proven that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) told women to go out to the Eid prayer-place to pray and remember Allaah (dhikr), but he told the menstruating women to keep away from the prayer-place itself.

End quote from Fataawa al-Tahaarah, p. 273.

See the views of the fuqaha’ in al-Mabsoot, 3/153; Haashiyat al-Dasooqi, 1/173; al-Majmoo’, 2/388; al-Mughni, 1/195

Secondly:

A menstruating woman may read Qur’aan without touching the Mus-haf, as we explained in the answer to question no. 2564.

She may read a Mus-haf that is printed with the tafseer (commentary). Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: As for the books of tafseer, it is permissible (for a menstruating woman) to touch them, because they are regarded as tafseer, and the verses that are in them are less than the tafseer that is in them.

They quoted as evidence for this the fact that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) wrote letters to the kuffaar containing verses from the Qur’aan, which indicates that the ruling depends on what constitutes the majority of the letter, which was not the word of Allaah.

But if the Qur’aan and tasfeer are of equal amounts, this comes under the rule that when the reasons for regarding something as permissible are equal to the reasons for making it forbidden, and there is no way of distinguishing which outweighs the other, then the reasons for forbidding it take precedence, so it comes under the same rulings as Qur’aan.

If the tafseer is more, even if it is only slightly more, then it comes under the same rulings as tafseer.

End quote from al-Sharh al-Mumti’, 1/267

Thirdly:

What is mentioned in the question about the menstruating woman being afraid of missing some topics or lessons if she cannot enter the mosque can be dealt with by recording those lessons, or by her listening from outside the mosque, if that is possible. Some mosques have additional rooms that do not come under the same rulings as mosques, such as a library or rooms for memorizing Qur’aan, so women who are not allowed to sit in the mosque should be able to sit there.

And Allaah knows best.

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