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Revisiting Islamic Laws of Istiḥāḍa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2019

HAGGAI MAZUZ
HAGGAI MAZUZ*
Affiliation:
School of International Studies, Sun Yat-sen University, hagaimazuz@gmail.com
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Abstract

The Islamic laws pertaining to mustḥāḍa—women who have dysfunctional uterine bleeding (istiḥāḍa)—have been overlooked in the research literature. This article reopens the research discourse on this topic by discussing two related questions: may a mustḥāḍa perform religious obligations and may she have sexual intercourse? The questions are shown to be somewhat related. It is found that jurists conceded the right of a mustḥāḍa to pray but disagreed about why—implying, contrary to previous scholarship, that Islam accommodates different levels of ritual impurity—and that they held divergent views on her having intercourse. By probing and investigating Islamic legal sources, it is shown that research assertions about istiḥāḍa thus far require circumscription and re-examination.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , April 2020 , pp. 223 - 229
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Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2019

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References

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11 For legal discussions of the Muslim sages and an analysis of these two topics, see Mazuz, Menstruation and Its Legislation, Chapter 5.

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14 On lochia, see Mazuz, “Islamic Laws of Lochia”, pp. 239–246.

15 Rushd, Muḥammad b., Bidāyat al-Mujtahid wa-Nihāyat al-Muqtaṣid (Cairo, 1950), p. 49Google Scholar. On rukhṣa, see M. Kister, J., “On Concessions and Conduct. A Study in Early Ḥadīth”, in Juynboll, G. H. A. (ed.), Studies on the First Century of Islamic Society (Carbondale, 1982), pp. 89–107Google Scholar; Peters, Ruud, “Rukhṣa”, Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd Edition), 12 vols. (Leiden, 1995), Vol. 8, pp. 595–596Google Scholar; Mazuz, “Menstruation and Differentiation”, pp. 211–213.

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18 Translation taken from The Koran Interpreted. Edited by A. J. Arberry (London, 1964).

19 Aḥmad al-Anṣārī al-Qurṭubī, Muḥammad b., al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 10 vols. (Beirut, 1965), Vol. 3, p. 86Google Scholar. Cf. al-Dārimī, Sunan, p. 170 (ḥadīth no. 836).

20 al-Ṣanʿānī, al-Muṣannaf, Vol. 1, p. 240 (ḥadīth no. 1195); al-Dārimī, Sunan, p. 170 (ḥadīth no. 834).

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22 al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, Vol. 3, p. 86. Cf. al-Marghīnānī, al-Hidāya, Vol. 1, p. 246.

23 See Sābiq, al-Sayyid, Fiqh al-Sunna, 3 vols. (Beirut, 1995), Vol. 1, p. 496Google Scholar. Cf. al-Ṣanʿānī, al-Muṣannaf, Vol. 1, p. 239 (ḥadīth no. 1190).

24 al-Dāraquṭnī, Sunan, Vol. 1, p. 220 (ḥadīth no. 58); Anas, Mālik b., al-Muwaṭṭaʾ (Beirut, 1999), p. 75 (67)Google Scholar; Ibn Abī Shayba, al-Muṣannaf, Vol. 1, pp. 150–151; al-Ashʿath al-Sijistānī, Abū Dāʾūd Sulaymān b., Sunan Abī Dāʾūd, 2 vols. (Cairo, 1952), Vol. 1, p. 72Google Scholar.

25 As far as I can ascertain, there is no source that lists all the actions; the following description relies on the multiple sources that are mentioned in this article.

26 Wensinck, “Die Entstehung der Muslimischen Reinheitsgesetzgebung”, p. 75.

27 al-Dāraquṭnī, Sunan, Vol. 1, p. 219 (ḥadīth no. 65).

28 al-Dārimī, Sunan, p. 170 (ḥadīth no. 835); al-Bayhaqī, al-Sunan al-Kubrā, Vol. 1, p. 329.

29 al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, Vol. 3, p. 86.

30 al-Ṣanʿānī, al-Muṣannaf, Vol. 1, p. 240 (ḥadīth no. 1190); al-Dārimī, Sunan, p. 170 (ḥadīth no. 822).

31 Abū Dāʾūd, Sunan, Vol. 1, p. 74; al-Bayhaqī, al-Sunan al-Kubrā, Vol. 1, p. 329.

32 al-Dārimī, Sunan, p. 170 (ḥadīth nos. 823–825, 830–831).

33 al-Ṣanʿānī, al-Muṣannaf, Vol. 1, p. 239 (ḥadīth nos. 1186–1887).

34 al-Ṣanʿānī, al-Muṣannaf, Vol. 1, p. 239 (ḥadīth no. 1188); al-Dārimī, Sunan, p. 170 (ḥadīth no. 823).

35 al-Dārimī, Sunan, p. 170 (ḥadīth no. 826).

36 al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, Vol. 3, p. 86.

37 Aḥmad al-ʿAynī, Abū Muḥammad Maḥmūd b., al-Bināya fī Sharḥ al-Hidāya, 10 vols. (Beirut, 1990), Vol. 1, p. 662Google Scholar. Cf. al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, Vol. 3, p. 86.

38 On Istiḥsān, see Hallaq, Wael, The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law (Cambridge, 2005), pp. 144–145Google Scholar. According to some opinions, the permission to have intercourse with a mustḥāḍa stems from rukhṣa. See Maghen, Ze'ev, “Close Encounters: Some Preliminary Observations on the Transmission of Impurity in Early Sunni Jurisprudence”, Islamic Law and Society, 6/3 (1999), pp. 348–392CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 384, n.96. Notably, there are some commonalities between istiḥsān and rukhṣa.

39 Ibn Rushd, Bidāyat al-Mujtahid, p. 49.

40 al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, Vol. 3, p. 86.

41 Ibn Rushd, Bidāyat al-Mujtahid, p. 49.

42 al-ʿAynī, al-Bināya, Vol. 1, p. 662.

43 Elsewhere I challenge this view in greater details. See Mazuz, “Islamic Laws of Lochia”, pp. 245.