Fatwa ID: 04482

Answered by: Alimah Sabrina Al-Faarsiyyah

Question:

Asalaamu Alaikum. I am a 21-year-old girl. Last week, in order to perform umrah, I completed all the necessary acts of umrah i.e being in the state of ihram, performing tawaaf, doing sa'ee of Safa and Marwa, and cutting an inch of the hair. However, after performing all of these acts, when I went to the bathroom I noticed my underwear and realized that I had already got my periods. I am not at all sure if the periods had started at the time of performing tawaaf or after performing tawaaf because it even might have started at the time of doing sa'ee which took about 4 hours. Is there an expiation required?

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيْم

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Answer:

Refer back to your menstrual habit. If your normal habit is such that it comes a certain number of hours prior to when you checked, then you will assume that that’s when your period had started and act accordingly to that.

If you are not sure what your habit is, then act according to your strongest position. If you think it started during tawaf, and you performed all or the majority (4 or more circuits) of your tawaf in the state of menstruation, then it will be wajib upon you to repeat this tawaf once you become pure. If you do not repeat it, you will have to give kaffarah (sacrifice a whole cow or camel). If you performed less than 3 circuits in the state of menstruation, then you would have to give damm (sacrifice a goat, sheep or the 7th portion of a cow or camel.[1]

If your strongest thought is that it started during sa’ee, then there’s no expiation required for that.[2] If you do not incline to any position, then you will assume that your period started at the moment you saw it and will not require to give any compensation.

Only Allah knows best

Written by Alimah Sabrina Al-Faarsiyyah

Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Darul Ifta Birmingham