Part 17

A woman can wear her customary clothing during the pilgrimage but she must refrain from the following: (1) clothing that is perfumed, (2) gloves, (3) face veil and (4) clothing dyed with saffron.

The Sixteenth Issue: Pilgrimage During Menses and Post-Partum Bleeding

Women on their menses or with post-partum bleeding perform the ghusl, enter the inviolable state and perform all of the rites of the pilgrimage except for circumambulating the House. They do not circumambulate the House until they become pure from their state.

The pilgrims should chant the talbiyyah.|1 The men should raise their voices while the women say it quietly. Furthermore, women do not follow the practice of trotting during the circumambulation or the sa’ee. They also do not raise their voices while supplicating, nor do they crowd in to get to the black stone or other locations.

The Eighteenth Issue: Cutting the Hair as a Rite of Pilgrimage

Cutting or shaving the hair is one of the rites of the pilgrimage and the umrah. For the woman, cutting the hair

' This is the saying of, “Labaika-Habumma labaik labaika laa shareeka laka labaik. Inna-l-hamda_ wa-nimata laka wa-l-mulk. Laa shareeka lak (O Allah, here I am at your service. You have no partner. Here I am at your service. Verily, all the praise and the grace belong to You, and the Dominion [as well]. You have no partner).”

takes the place of shaving the hair, since it is not allowed for a woman to shave her hair. The manner in which a woman cuts her hair for this rite is to cut off a fingertip’s worth from every braid or she gathers her hair together, if it is not in braids, and cuts off that amount from it.

It is preferred for the women to perform the circumambulation of returning from Mina early on the Day of Sacrifice if they fear that their menses are coming. Aishah would tell the women to perform that circumambulation early on the Day of Sacrifice out of fear that they may experience their menses. If a woman is menstruating, she does not have to perform the farewell circumambulation if she had already performed the circumambulation after returning from Mina and if her departure time is while she is on her menses.

It is not allowed for a Muslim woman to marry a nonMuslim, regardless of whether he be a polytheist— socialist, Hindu or other— or from the People of the Book. This is because the man has the right of heading the household over his wife and she must obey him. This is the meaning of such authority. It is not proper for a disbeliever or polytheist to have any kind of authority or rule over any one who bears witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the Messenger of Allah.

Custody refers to taking care of a small male or female child or an incompetent person. The mother has the right to have custody over the male or female child. She is forced to do so if she refuses. After her, in this right, comes her mother, then the mother’s mother and then her mother and so on, and then comes the father and then his mother, then the grandfather, then his mother, then the full sister, then the halfsister through the mother, then the half-sister through the ’ father, then the mother’s sisters, then the father’s sisters, then the father’s sisters of her mother, then the father’s maternal aunts, then the mother’s father’s maternal aunts, then her nieces from her sisters, then her cousins from her mother’s side, then her cousins from her father’s side and so forth. It continues in this manner until, if there are no more such relatives, the ruler takes charge of the child.

The father must pay the wages of the one who has the custody. In order to qualify for such custody, the person must be adult, sane, able to bring up the child, trustworthy, of good character, Muslim and not married. If the mother gets remarried, she loses her right to custody. If a boy reaches the age of seven, he is free to choose which parent he wishes to stay with. After the age of seven, the father has more right to his daughter until he gives her over to her husband.

The scholars of the four schools of fiqh, even those among them who say that the face and hands are not part of the aurah, are in agreement that it is obligatory upon the woman to cover all of her body in the presence of non-related men— those who say that such is not part of the aurah say that during immoral times, times of little piety and times in which men

look often at women, like what is occurring today, women are required to cover their faces and hands.

This is what I have been able to compile and collect in this short span of time. I ask the Lord and Guardian, the Exalted, the Powerful to make this work beneficial. Allah is behind every intention and He is the guide to the straight path.

This was completed at the beginning at Dhu-l-Hijjah, 1413 AH.