The menstruating woman makes up for missed fasts yet not missed prayers

03/07/2013| IslamWeb

Question:

Is a woman need to make up the lost prayers, during menstrual period later? Or is she exempted from the lost prayers during the days of her menstruation every month?

Fatwa:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

A woman is not obliged to make up for the prayers she had missed during her menses and it is not permissible for her to do so. Indeed, ‘Aa'ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, said: “We used to be in menses and we used to be ordered to make up the days of fasting that we had missed but we were not ordered to make up for the missed prayers.” [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

This is evidence that our Islamic legislation is easy and tolerable. We pray five times a day, and if a woman who was in menses is ordered to make up all the prayers she had missed during this period, it would be difficult for her and a burden on her.

However, she is obliged to make up the days of fasting that she had missed, and the month of Ramadan is only once a year and making up for the missed days is not considered a difficulty and burden on her.

Allah Knows best.