What Janābah Makes Unlawful

As set out under the obligation before this one, certain things become absolutely unlawful for a person the moment this state of impurity begins. Ṣalāh may not be performed at all. The Qurʾān may not be touched, and it may not be recited — except where a particular verse is read with the intention of duʿāʾ, supplication, rather than with the intention of recitation as Qurʾān. This is why a verse such as the following may still be read in that state, as an example:

or a verse such as this one:

each read there with the intention of duʿāʾ, and not with the intention of reciting Qurʾān as Qurʾān. Entry into a masjid is likewise unlawful in this state, and so is ṭawāf around the Kaʿbah; and where a woman is in her monthly cycle, her ḥayḍ, or in nifās, intimacy with her spouse becomes unlawful as well.

This whole subject carries a difficulty of its own, precisely because it is one many people find embarrassing to raise, and this is an age with few scholars close at hand to ask, even about the basics of fiqh — especially where ghusl is concerned, since people so often find it an awkward matter to discuss, and careful words are needed to explain it without causing embarrassment. Shortcomings and gaps in how ghusl is actually performed follow directly from this difficulty, encouraged besides by shayṭān and by the laziness of the nafs, so that a Muslim sometimes goes through a whole day without ghusl having been properly made — a state that carries real psychological weight, and worse than that besides. Women in particular are very often left without anyone equipped to teach them the many rulings proper to ḥayḍ and nifās, and so, through no real fault of their own, they make up rules of their own as they go along: missing ṣalāh where it should still be prayed, or praying ṣalāh where it should not be prayed at all — mistakes that follow simply from a lack of Islamic knowledge in this regard, and from nobody being at hand to ask.