Islamic Laws of Lochia

ISLAMIC LAWS OF LOCHIA HAGGAI MAZUZ Abstract The question of the Islamic laws pertaining to women who experience lochia has been largely overlooked in the research literature. Even scholars who treat the issue do so in a very general way and thus overlook nuances in the Islamic juridical discussion of the topic and the insights that one may derive from it. This article aims to fill the lacuna that beset this subject by presenting the three main juridical discussions that concern the topic and offering an insight adduced from this presentation and its analysis. Keywords: nafsā᾿, lochia, akthar al-nifās, aqall al-nifās, menstruant, musthāda Introduction on only a few Islamic sources, he was not aware of the alternative views. Although a number of contributions on the menstrual 1 The next academic treatment of this issue came nearly laws in Islam have been published recently, several seventy years after Wensinck’s aforementioned article. issues related to the subject have yet to receive appropri- Hava Lazarus-Yafeh, who apparently was exposed to ᾿ ate treatment. The laws pertaining to nafsā —women more primary sources than Wensinck regarding the post- who have lochia (postpartum bleeding and discharge)— natality laws, reports the term of postpartum impurity as are one case in point. ranging from one minute to forty days or, according to So far as I have been able to ascertain, the first scholar some authorities, sixty days. The duration depends on who addressed this issue was Arent Jan Wensinck, who the flow of her blood, with no distinction made for the in 1914 published an article that dealt with the origins of newborn’s gender (unlike in Leviticus 12:2–5) and no Islamic purity laws. Wensinck, however, dedicated only internal division of the term (the first two weeks after ᾿ a few terse lines to the nafsā : “The longest time during parturition and the rest).3 which a woman is unable to attend worship is after child- To the best of my knowledge, no scholar since birth, namely on average forty days. This is exactly the Lazarus-Yafeh has taken up this issue at considerable number of days prescribed for a Jewish woman who 2 length. In addition, there is no entry for nifās in either gave birth to a boy.” Wensinck’s remarks are somewhat the first or the second edition of the Encyclopedia of vague because, according to Jewish law, a woman who Islam, in which the term is mentioned only three times gives birth is not barred from performing various religious in entries such as hayd,4 ghusl,5 and tahāra6 and even practices. then very briefly and almost en passant. Subsequently, Wensinck based this conclusion on one legal source, G.H. Bousquet, for example, summarized this subject in al-Nawawī’s Minhāj al-Tālibīn, and three hadīth collec- a few lines: “The regulations concerning the nifās (lochia) ᾿ ᾿ tions: al-Sunan al-Kubrā of al-Nasā ī, Sunan Abī Dā ūd, are almost the same as those concerning menstruation: and Sunan al-Dārimī. In fact, Islamic legal sources thus the ghusl of the woman who has given birth takes express additional opinions about how long a woman place when there is no more discharge, the fixed interval after giving birth is considered impure and discuss the of forty days (Leviticus, Zend-Avesta) being unknown, subject widely. It is possible that since Wensinck relied at least in theory.” Bousquet concludes in a way that demonstrates how the question of the juridical discussions has been overlooked: “The casuistical differences 1 See Mazuz, 2012; Mazuz, 2014; Mazuz, 2015; Mazuz, forth- coming. 2 “Am längsten dauert die Unfähigkeit zur Teilnahme am Kultus 3 Lazarus-Yafeh, 1982:216. bei der Wöchnerin nl. durchschnittlich vierzig Tage. Das ist gerade die 4 Bousquet, 1971:3:315. Anzahl Tage, welche für die jüdische Frau festgesetzt war, welche 5 Bousquet, 1965:2:1104. cinen Knaben geboren hatte.” See Wensinck, 1914:75. 6 Reinhart, 2000:10:99. Journal Asiatique 303.2 (2015): 239-246 doi: 10.2143/JA.303.2.3120206 98350.indb 239 8/12/15 11:11 240 HAGGAI MAZUZ between the various schools on this subject may be omit- In a variant of this hadīth, in which the woman is ted here.”7 identified as ῾ā᾿isha, we read that she was sleeping with In general, one may state that while scholars have Muhammad in bed and suddenly jumped out. Muham- written profusely about Islamic jurisprudence and its mad asked her: “Did your period begin? ῾ā᾿isha principles, few works deal probingly and thoroughly responded: Yes. In return, he said to her: Put on your with the challenging issue of the Islamic legal discourse izār (a large sheet-like robe that is worn both as a mantle and the thrust and parry of Islamic jurisprudence. This and as a long loin cloth or waist cloth) and come back to explains the lack of treatment of the issues discussed bed.”11 below. In the second hadīth, Islamic sources report several To date, then, no scholar has attempted to develop the different versions of an incident with ῾ā᾿isha or with subject or study it further. A comprehensive review of Umm Salama, depending on the version, when she made Sunnī legal sources and the hadīth literature demon- the pilgrimage. According to some hadīths, ῾ā᾿isha strates that the topics surrounding women after childbirth narrated that she became menstruant while performing are divided into three main discussions. In this article, I the pilgrimage. Muhammad asked her, “What happened examine these matters and present some points that have to you? Have you started menstruating (a-nafisti)?” She not appeared in the research literature thus far. replied, “Yes.” Muhammad then told her, “This is a thing that Allāh sentenced [literally: wrote] on women [for eter- ᾿ ῾ 12 1. The Analogy between Women’s Menstrual and nity]” (hādhā shay katabahu Allāh alā banāt Ādam). Postpartum Statuses Ibn Rajab, however, cited a hadīth in the name of Ibn Hanbal that appears to reject the analogy between lochia Bousquet and Lazarus-Yafeh argued that the laws of and menstrual blood. According to this hadīth, on one nifās and menstrual blood are similar but neither dis- of her nights with Muhammad, Umm Salama suddenly cussed why.8 There is a consensus among Muslim jurists started menstruating. Muhammad asked her, “What hap- that the laws pertaining to women experiencing lochia pened to you? a-nafisti?” She said, “No, but I became are identical to those concerning menstruants. According menstruant (hidtu)”. Muhammad told her, “Put on the izār to Ibn Farah, the connection is adduced from an analogy and return to bed.” Ibn Rajab adds that this hadīth is odd drawn from hadīths, according to which, when Muḥam- and thus is rejected by the Muslim sages.13 mad asked ῾ā᾿isha bt. Abī Bakr and Umm Salama in two Since the Islamic religious authorities accepted the different cases whether they had become menstruants, he analogy of menstrual blood and lochia, as long as wom- used the root n.f.s., which denotes blood (nafs), and they an’s lochia persists—a subject to be discussed in great responded in the affirmative. Therefore, Ibn Farah claims, detail in the next sections—she may not pray, fast, circle the same laws apply to both types of blood discharge.9 the Ka῾ba, enter a mosque, read and touch the Qur᾿ān, Two hadīths were narrated by both ῾ā᾿isha and Umm and have intercourse with her husband.14 Salama in this regard, one about their having gone to sleep one night and the other when they made the pil- 1.1. Menstrual Blood and Lochia —Different After All grimage. Although the jurists did not specify the hadīths on the basis of which they made their ruling, the first Although the legal status of menstrual blood and hadīth was probably the following: On one of her nights lochia is identical, the statuses of women who experience with Muhammad, Umm Salama suddenly started men- these forms of bleeding are different in three ways: struating. Immediately, she jumped out of bed, appar- (1) the onset of menses indicates that a girl has become ently thinking that she might have made Muhammad an adult who now must fulfill the precepts of the faith ritually impure. Muhammad asked her, “What happened (mukallifa); the lochia does not have this effect. This to you? Have you started menstruating (a-nafisti)?” She difference is theoretical because the latter event cannot replied, “Yes.” Then Muhammad summoned her back to their bed.10 11 Mālik, 1999:72-73. 12 al-Bukhārī, 1950:1:81. For the version that identifies her as Umm Salama, see Ibn Rajab, 1996:2:13. 7 Bousquet, 1971:3:315. 13 Ibn Rajab, 1996:2:26. 8 Bousquet, 1965:2:1104; Lazarus-Yafeh, 1982:216. 14 See e.g., al-Māwardī, 1994:1:534; al-Qurtubī, 1965:3:84. Since 9 Ibn Farah, 1997:1:432. Cf. Ibn Hajar al-῾Asqalānī, 1959:1:402. Muslim jurists assume that the laws relating to women in a condition 10 For sources of this tradition, see al-San῾ānī, 2000:1:248 (hadīth of lochia and to menstrual blood are the same, Islamic legal sources no. 1237); al-Bukhārī, 1950:1:82; al-Qushayrī, 1955:1:243 (book barely address the matter of lochia. For example, al-῾Aynī argues that [kitāb] no. 3: section [bāb] no. 2: hadīth no. 5); al-Nasā᾿ī, 1930:1:178 one learns the injunction against a postpartum woman’s reading the (section [bāb] no. 158: hadīth no. 271); Ibn Māja, 1952:1:209; Qur᾿ān from the prohibition applying to menstruants.

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