The Ruling on Tawaf for Menstruating Women: A Comparative Study of the Four Madhhabs in Legal Deduction (Istinbāṭ) and the Limits of Concession (Rukhsah)

Zamzami Muhammad (Universitas Islam Negeri Sumatera Utara)
Muhammad Irwan Padli Nasution (Universitas Islam Negeri Sumatera Utara)
Retno Sayekti (Universitas Islam Negeri Sumatera Utara)

Al Fuadiy: Jurnal Hukum Keluarga Islam
Vol. 8 No. 2 (2026): Juli-Desember, Al Fuadiy: Jurnal Hukum Keluarga Islam

Performing tawaf during menstruation raises legal questions, particularly when limited periods of stay, departure schedules, and travel circumstances make it difficult to postpone the ritual until menstrual purification is achieved. The issue concerns not only whether menstruating women may perform tawaf, but also the legal status of ritual purity in determining its validity and the limits of legal concessions (rukhsah). This study aims to analyze the methods of legal deduction (istinbāṭ) employed by the four Sunni madhhabs in determining the ruling on tawaf performed by menstruating women and to examine the limits of rukhsah under specific circumstances. This research employs normative legal research with comparative jurisprudential (fiqh muqāran) and interpretive approaches through a library study of the Qur’an, hadith, classical jurisprudential works, and relevant scholarly literature. The analysis examines the relationship between textual evidence, legal reasoning, the classification of ritual purity (ṭahārah), and the resulting legal consequences in each madhhab. The findings indicate that the principal difference concerns the legal status of ṭahārah within the legal framework of tawaf. The Hanafi madhhab classifies ritual purity as an obligation rather than a condition of validity, allowing tawaf performed without purification to retain legal recognition while entailing consequences such as dam or badanah, depending on the circumstances. The Shafi‘i madhhab explicitly regards ritual purity as a condition of validity, whereas the Maliki and Hanbali madhhabs, in their principal positions, require tawaf to be performed in a state of purity, although their detailed legal consequences require separate examination. The study further demonstrates that the exemption from farewell tawaf (tawaf wada‘) based on the hadith of Safiyyah cannot be generalized to justify omitting the obligatory tawaf ifadah. The application of rukhsah in pressing circumstances requires an assessment of the type of tawaf, the actual circumstances, and the jurisprudential position used as its legal basis. Accordingly, reconstructing the legal reasoning of the four madhhabs provides a framework for understanding their differences and assessing cases involving menstruating women performing pilgrimage rituals.