The third book is on menstruation. The subjects of this book and the previous one overlap, for both have to do with ritualistic purity. Therefore, some cross-reference is inevitable. This chapter too, in fact, does not have very much to say on menstruation as such but a great deal on ritualistic ablution and bathing after sexual intercourse.
On the subject of menstruation, Muhammad�s practice appears, in some respects, different from what was enjoined by the revelation in the QurAn. The QurAn uses rather strong language on the subject: �They ask thee concerning women�s courses. Say: They are a hurt and a pollution. So keep away from women in their course, and do not approach them until they are clean� (2:222).
But perhaps approach here means to have sexual intercourse, for except for coitus all other contacts were permitted by the Prophet. MaimUna tells us: �The Messenger of Allah used to lie with me when I menstruated, and there was a cloth between me and him� (580). Umm Salama reports the same (581). �Aisha says: �When anyone amongst us menstruated, the Messenger of Allah asked her to tie a waist-wrapper over her and then embraced her� (577).
Other ahAdIs make the same point, besides throwing interesting sidelights on some of the more intimate habits of the Prophet. �Aisha reports: �The Messenger of Allah would recline in my lap when I was menstruating, and recite the QurAn� (591). Rather an unlikely place for svAdhyAya, or scriptural studies.
Carrying the same sexual overtones taught by Freud, �Aisha again reports: �I would drink when I was menstruating, then I would hand over the vessel to the Apostle and he would put his mouth where mine had been, and drink, and I would eat flesh from a bone when I was menstruating, then hand it over to the Apostle and he would put his mouth where mine had been� (590).
The Prophet would also allow �Aisha to comb his hair when she was menstruating and he was supposed to be observing i�tikAf, technically segregating oneself and staying in a mosque for a certain number of days, especially during the last ten days of the month of RamzAn. �The Messenger of Allah put out from the mosque his head for me as he was in i�tikAf[her room opened on the mosque], and I washed it in the state that I was menstruating,� �Aisha reports (584).
All this was opposed to the Jewish practice, which forbade not only sexual intercourse but also kissing and all other forms of physical contact during menstruation. Some Muslims wanted to go whole hog in their opposition to Jewish practice and suggested to Muhammad that he should permit sexual intercourse too since the Jews forbade it. But Muhammad did not go that far.
author : ram swarup