Maryam Amir – Is menses a punishment Menses and Hajj

			When I was about to be in hajj, an
older woman came to me crying. She
		

			said she had gotten her period,
and she asked the woman around her
		

			what to do, and they said it is a
punishment from Allah. They asked
		

			her what she did, what she did in
hajj, to be so sinful that she got
		

			her period. These are older women.
Their entire lives, they've been
		

			taught, and they've taught that
your period, especially in a time
		

			of heightened spiritual practice
as a punishment from God. I get
		

			messages like this from women who
were told that they had done
		

			something wrong. This idea that
your natural, healthy, very
		

			important, critical to humanity
period as a punishment from God
		

			does not come from Islam. In fact,
a lot of the ways that we see
		

			women's issues comes from
colonialism and fortunately,
		

			honestly, puritanical ideas of
women in Christianity heavily
		

			impacted Muslim culture, and
that's not from our sources. When
		

			Aisha radiAllahu anha went to
hedge with the Prophet, peace be
		

			upon you can imagine how excited
she was after all these years of
		

			being away from Mecca, being in
Medina, and now she gets to make
		

			hed, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam, and she gets her
		

			period. She was devastated. She
was crying. And the Prophet
		

			sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, very
gently, very kindly, asked her if
		

			she got her period. And then the
Prophet, peace be upon him. So
		

			beautiful. This is something
decreed for the daughters of Adam.
		

			He connected her moment of pain
and vulnerability with a prophet
		

			of God, the shaming, the stigma,
the blaming, the all of that
		

			that's not from our sources. Rava
Salaah. Salam taught her to do
		

			everything that the Hajjaj do,
except for make tawaf, obviously
		

			we also don't make salah, but she
would have known that Radi Allahu
		

			anha and had you go to Mina, you
go to Arafat, you go to Muslimah,
		

			you go to the jamarat. These are
all things you can do on your
		

			period without needing wudu. But
to complete the hedge, you need to
		

			make a toe off, and that's the
tricky part, because you can't
		

			make tow off while you're on your
period. So you can take
		

			medication, but when you take
medication, it's possible that you
		

			might end up bleeding even more so
than you might have without them.
		

			And so what do you do? You have
two options. One, you can wait
		

			until your period is done, but
that's simply not realistic for
		

			the majority of us who don't live
anywhere close to Mecca. Or two,
		

			you can take Ibn Taymiyyah
opinion. During the time of Ibn
		

			Taymiyyah, Rahim Allah, the
security that used to be a part of
		

			the hajj process no longer
existed. From the from the from
		

			the khulafa, the leadership did
not have the type of security it
		

			used to in the time of the four
the Imams of the form of that him.
		

			And so he was faced with a
question that none of them had
		

			been faced with before. Bedouins
were raiding caravans. Caravans
		

			couldn't stay later and would
leave immediately after the Hajj
		

			was done for protection. So no
caravan would wait for a woman to
		

			finish her period anymore, when,
in the past, they used to. So he
		

			made a fatwa that a woman can make
tawaf when she is bleeding on her
		

			period. Some of the scholars say
sacrifice should be given if she
		

			does so, you can speak with your
hedge group to figure out your
		

			situation. Definitely take classes
to understand your period. Here
		

			are three I recommend. Have you
done little? Claria, the woman
		

			Quran, reciters, applause.