Can I read the Qurʾān during my period? Can I touch the mushaf without wuḍūʾ? These questions come up all the time, particularly from women, because women face two states men do not: the period (ḥayḍ) and bleeding after childbirth (nifās). The third state, janāba, affects everyone; it follows intercourse or emission and is lifted by ghusl.

The answers below follow the Shāfiʿī school, with reference to the Mālikī school. We follow the Shāfiʿī school in general but often refer to the Mālikī madhhab. The reasons are the precedent of Sayyid Muḥammad b. ʿAlawī al-Mālikī, the shaykh of our shaykhs; the fact that the Shādhulī masters, to whom we are attached, generally followed the Mālikī school; and the practice of many of our own shaykhs, who are Mālikī.

The first half is written in plain language, with the technical terms in italics. The second half gives the reasoning and the sources for readers who want them.

Three questions are often mixed into one: reciting the Qurʾān with the tongue, looking at its written text without touching it, and touching or carrying a mushaf. The schools treat them as separate acts, and the differences matter throughout.

Key words

Wuḍūʾ: the ablution before prayer. “Having wuḍūʾ” means you have made it and not broken it.
Ghusl: the full ritual bath.
Janāba: the state after intercourse or emission, lifted by ghusl.
Ḥayḍ and nifās: the period, and bleeding after birth. Nifās follows the same rulings as the period.
Mushaf: the physical copy of the Qurʾān. “Touch” includes carrying it.
Recite: to utter it with the tongue, intending it as Qurʾān. Looking at the text and following it with the heart, without moving the tongue, is called silent reading here.
Dhikr and duʿāʾ: remembrance of God and supplication.
Ḥadath aṣghar / akbar: minor impurity (loss of wuḍūʾ) and major impurity (janāba, period, nifās).
Muʿtamad: the position a school relies on when giving a fatwā.
Qawl qadīm / jadīd: al-Shāfiʿī’s earlier position, from before he moved to Egypt, and his later one.
Taqlīd: following a scholar’s position without needing to know its detailed evidence.
Tarjīḥ: weighing competing positions within a school. Scholars qualified to do it are ahl al-tarjīḥ.

The short version

You may always look at the Qurʾān and follow it with the heart. Doing so without moving the tongue is allowed in every state. Al-Nawawī states that there is no disagreement about it.
Shāfiʿī school: during a period, nifās or janāba, do not recite as Qurʾān and do not touch the mushaf. Without wuḍūʾ you may recite but not touch. You may say Qurʾānic words as dhikr or duʿāʾ.
Mālikī school: while the bleeding continues a woman may recite. When it stops she waits for ghusl, unless she fears forgetting. Someone in janāba may not recite, apart from a small amount for protection. The mushaf needs wuḍūʾ, with an exception for teachers and students.
An old Shāfiʿī opinion allowed a woman with her period to recite. It is not the muʿtamad Shāfiʿī position. Some later Shāfiʿī authorities regard following a non-relied-upon position from within the school, on the conditions in the second half, as preferable to following another madhhab. She may also simply follow the Mālikī position (see the second half).

What applies in each situation

Find your situation and read the two lines under it. Each situation assumes the state named is the only one that applies, and the rulings are the relied-upon position of each school as the sources consulted state it. “Recite” always means reciting as Qurʾān (tilawa); the next section explains how dhikr differs.

A. You have wuḍūʾ.

Shāfiʿī: you may recite and touch the mushaf.
Mālikī: the same.

B. You have lost wuḍūʾ, but you are not bleeding and not in janāba.

Shāfiʿī: you may recite. You may not touch the mushaf.
Mālikī: you may recite. You may not touch the mushaf, except a teacher or student while teaching or learning.

C. You are bleeding (period or nifās), and were not in janāba before it began.

Shāfiʿī: you may not recite and may not touch the mushaf.
Mālikī: you may recite while the blood flows. You may touch the mushaf only if you are a teacher or student.

D. You are bleeding, and you were in janāba before it began.

Shāfiʿī: the same as C.
Mālikī: the same as C. The earlier janāba does not change it.

E. The bleeding has stopped and you can now make ghusl. You were not in janāba before.

Shāfiʿī: you may not recite or touch the mushaf until you have made ghusl.
Mālikī: you may not recite until ghusl, unless you fear forgetting what you have memorised. You may not touch the mushaf.

F. The same as E, but you were in janāba before the bleeding began.

Shāfiʿī: the same as E.
Mālikī: the same as E.

G. You are in janāba only, and have not yet made ghusl.

Shāfiʿī: you may not recite or touch the mushaf.
Mālikī: you may not recite, except a small amount for protection. You may not touch the mushaf, not even as a teacher or student.

What is allowed in every state

Silent reading. Looking at the mushaf and running its words through the heart, without moving the tongue, is permitted. Al-Nawawī says so without disagreement, and adds that the scholars agree on tasbīḥ, tahlīl and other adhkār that are not Qurʾān (Majmūʿ 2/387–388).
Qurʾānic words as dhikr or duʿāʾ. Saying “innā lillāhi wa innā ilayhi rājiʿūn” at a loss, or the travel duʿāʾ on mounting a vehicle, is fine. The Shāfiʿī rule turns on your intention: if you intend Qurʾān, it is prohibited; if you intend dhikr, it is allowed; if you intend neither, it is also allowed (al-Nawawī, Majmūʿ 2/162; Ibn Ḥajar, Tuḥfa). The same covers well-known awrād, short sūras taken as protection, and verses quoted as evidence. The intention has to be a genuine non-recitation one; renaming ordinary recitation “dhikr” does not change the ruling.
Irregular bleeding (istiḥāḍa). A woman with istiḥāḍa is not treated as menstruating. She may recite, and after wuḍūʾ she may touch and carry the mushaf (Majmūʿ).
Phones and digital texts. Egypt’s Dār al-Iftāʾ treats a phone or digital copy of the Qurʾān as lacking the legal status of a mushaf, so touching the device does not carry the ruling of touching a mushaf. It asks for respect (not displaying it in a toilet, for example) and says wuḍūʾ is better. This changes the ruling on touching only. Under the relied-upon Shāfiʿī position, a period, nifās or janāba still prevents reciting as Qurʾān.

Three things about touching the mushaf

Children who are studying. A child old enough to understand (mumayyiz) need not be stopped from carrying the mushaf or a tablet for study, even in major impurity. Al-Shirbīnī (al-Iqnāʿ 1/96) cites al-Nawawī’s Fatāwā and calls it even recommended, but limits it to carrying tied to study. Ibn Ḥajar and al-Ramlī also tie it to the need to learn (Bughya p. 51).
Adult students and teachers. The Shāfiʿī school has no general exception for adult women who are learning or teaching. The Mālikīs do.
Books mixing Qurʾān and commentary. Touching is allowed when the commentary is more than the Qurʾān. If the Qurʾān is more, or the two are equal, it is not (Ibn Ḥajar, al-Ramlī). Bughya (p. 52) adds that touching a commentary that exceeds the Qurʾān is disliked. The Mālikī position is broader.

In practice

Start from the Shāfiʿī rulings above, and move to the Mālikī position only where there is hardship. This is guidance, not a fatwā.

Keep revising silently. A memoriser can look at the text and run it through the heart in every state. This is also al-Nawawī’s answer to the fear of forgetting.
Use the dhikr allowance honestly. Qurʾānic words said as dhikr or duʿāʾ, with that intention, are allowed. Reciting a portion as Qurʾān under another name is not.
If there is real hardship, such as a memoriser, student or teacher, the Mālikī permission is available to a Shāfiʿī on the conditions in the second half. Take it as the Mālikīs hold it: recite while the blood flows, and once it stops make ghusl before resuming unless you fear forgetting (situations C and D).
If ghusl is possible, make it. In situations E, F and G the woman can end her state herself, so the Mālikī reason for the permission falls away. We recommend not leaving the Shāfiʿī position there.
Touching: both schools require wuḍūʾ for the mushaf. The Mālikī teacher-and-student exception applies to bleeding, not to janāba.

And Allah knows best.

For scholars and the curious: the reasoning and sources

Everything above is the practical answer. The rest explains why the schools differ, what became of the old Shāfiʿī position, and where the references are. One distinction runs through it: the position a mufti must give as fatwā is not the same as the range of positions an individual may follow in her own practice under recognised conditions.

The evidence behind the disagreement

In plain terms: the main report cited specifically against the menstruating woman is disputed in authenticity, while the report used against someone in janāba is stronger. That is one reason the schools disagree more over menstruation than over janāba.

The Ibn ʿUmar report: “The menstruating woman and the one in janāba do not recite anything of the Qurʾān.” Al-Nawawī notes that al-Tirmidhī and al-Bayhaqī graded it weak (Majmūʿ 2/387). Later discussions locate the weakness in Ismāʿīl b. ʿAyyāsh’s narrations from Ḥijāzī narrators, and quote Ibn Taymiyya calling it weak by agreement of the hadith specialists (Islamonline fiqh entry, to be checked in his Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā).
The ʿAlī report: nothing kept the Prophet ﷺ from the Qurʾān except janāba. Al-Tirmidhī graded it ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ, and Ibn Ḥajar judged it ḥasan and fit as proof (same entry). This is a substantially stronger hadith basis for the ruling on janāba than the Ibn ʿUmar report gives for menstruation.
Shāfiʿī reasoning. Al-Nawawī accepts that the Ibn ʿUmar report is weak. He rests the ruling on analogy with janāba, noting that those who differ over the menstruating woman agree about janāba (Dāwūd apart, whom the scholars of uṣūl do not count in consensus and disagreement).
Permitting reasoning. Those who allow it cite ʿĀʾisha’s reported recitation while menstruating, and the length of a period, which raises the fear of forgetting. Al-Nawawī answers that ʿĀʾisha’s practice is no proof because other Companions differed with her, and that when Companions differ one returns to analogy.

Why the Mālikī rulings differ

In plain terms: the Mālikīs allow recitation during bleeding largely because a woman cannot end that state herself, while someone in janāba can simply wash.

A central consideration in the Mālikī reasoning is whether the woman can end her state herself. Someone in janāba can wash immediately. A woman who is bleeding cannot, and her state can last days or weeks, so a ban could make her lose what she has memorised. That is why the permission applies while the blood flows and ends when it stops.

Al-Dusūqī (Ḥāshiya 1/174) calls both rules muʿtamad (relied upon). While the blood flows she may recite, whether or not she fears forgetting and whether or not she was in janāba first. Once it stops she waits for ghusl, unless she fears forgetting. He cites Ibn Rushd (al-Muqaddimāt) for the first rule, and says al-Ḥaṭṭāb calls it the apparent view.

He rejects as weak the formulation that al-Dardīr took from al-Zurqānī, under which a woman may recite after the bleeding stops unless janāba came first. He also reports a more lenient view from al-Bājī, through Ibn ʿArafa: she may recite after purity and before ghusl, whether or not janāba came first.

The teaching exception has the same logic. Al-Dardīr (al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr 1/125–126) allows a teacher and a student to touch the tablet while teaching and learning. On the relied-upon view this extends to a complete mushaf, and to a menstruating teacher or student. It does not extend to someone in janāba, because she can remove her impediment by ghusl. By the same reasoning the exception lapses once the bleeding stops. In the Mālikī texts a tafsīr, or a coin bearing Qurʾānic words, may be touched even in janāba.

The Shāfiʿī qawl qadīm

In plain terms: the Shāfiʿī school does have a reported early opinion allowing recitation during the period, but the school did not adopt it, and some of its scholars denied that al-Shāfiʿī held it at all.

There is a reported old position of al-Shāfiʿī allowing a menstruating woman to recite. It is not the school’s relied-upon view, and whether he held it at all was disputed from the start.

Where it comes from. Al-Nawawī calls the prohibition the sound and well-known position, held categorically by the Iraqis and a group of Khurāsānīs. The other Khurāsānīs reported an old position of al-Shāfiʿī permitting recitation. Its origin is a remark by Abū Thawr: “Abū ʿAbd Allāh said a menstruating woman may recite.” The Shāfiʿīs disagreed about who Abū ʿAbd Allāh was.

Some said he meant Mālik, and that al-Shāfiʿī has no such position. Imām al-Ḥaramayn and al-Ghazālī (al-Basīṭ) took this view.
Most Khurāsānīs said he meant al-Shāfiʿī, and made it a qawl qadīm. Shaykh Abū Muḥammad reported finding Abū Thawr naming “Abū ʿAbd Allāh” and “Mālik” side by side, which suggests they are two different people.

So Imām al-Ḥaramayn and al-Ghazālī did not adopt the permission as al-Shāfiʿī’s. They denied that it was his.

Two explanations of the qadīm, with different consequences. Those who accept it differed on its reason (ʿilla), and each reason gives a different scope. Imām al-Ḥaramayn and others set out both.

Fear of forgetting, because a period can last long. Then she may recite whatever she wants, since there is no limit to what she might fear forgetting. In recitation she is like a pure woman.
She may be a teacher, and a ban could cut off her livelihood. Then she may recite only what teaching requires.

Al-Rāfiʿī says the same position applies to nifās.

The school’s answer. Al-Nawawī records the Khurāsānī attribution but does not accept it as the position to follow for fatwā. He also records that Imām al-Ḥaramayn and al-Ghazālī took “Abū ʿAbd Allāh” to mean Mālik, so that no such Shāfiʿī position existed. Fear of forgetting is rare, he says, since a period usually lasts six or seven days and one does not normally forget in that time. And running the Qurʾān through the heart removes the fear.

Al-Māwardī (al-Ḥāwī) does not transmit the permission as a Shāfiʿī position. He gives it to Mālik and Dāwūd, and answers Mālik’s forgetting argument directly.

The history, then, is not “the school forbids, but there is an old opinion permitting”. It runs like this: a remark of Abū Thawr, read by most Khurāsānīs as a qawl qadīm of al-Shāfiʿī; denied by Imām al-Ḥaramayn and al-Ghazālī; analysed by al-Nawawī and rejected by him as the relied-upon position.

Can a Shāfiʿī act on the qawl qadīm?

In plain terms: for her own practice, some later Shāfiʿī authorities allow a person to follow a non-relied-upon opinion from within the school on conditions, and some prefer this to following another madhhab. She can also simply follow the Mālikī view instead, on conditions. Neither should be presented as the Shāfiʿī school’s relied-upon position or given as a fatwā to others.

Personal practice and fatwā are different. Bughyat al-Mustarshidīn (pp. 16, 20) separates them. Someone giving a fatwā must give the relied-upon position, and may not give a layperson attached to the Shāfiʿī school anything else. But an individual may follow a weak position for her own practice, such as the opposite of the aṣaḥḥ, the muʿtamad or the awjah. She should do so consciously, as following a view that permits it, and should not present it as the Shāfiʿī school’s relied-upon position.

Weak positions and hardship. The school does allow a follower to take a non-preferred position, or another madhhab, if there’s a genuine need. Al-Kurdī adds that following a weak position inside the school is better than following another madhhab, because the conditions for the latter are hard to meet (p. 20).

The conditions differ by formulation. One (al-Ashkhar) allows a non-preferred position, or another madhhab, only in necessity (ḍarūra), meaning hardship not normally bearable. Another (Yaḥyā) allows acting on a weak position that some ahl al-tarjīḥ preferred. A weak position none of them preferred is barred for someone able to research the question, or who has found someone to tell her the stronger view. For anyone else it is open (p. 19).

Two cautions about the old position. Bughya says the old madhhab as a whole is not al-Shāfiʿī’s madhhab for the follower, apart from eighteen listed issues, and this is not one of them (p. 16). It also says a follower takes the later of an imam’s two positions if known (p. 17). So the old position is best treated as a non-relied-upon one, with the care that involves. The passages read here do not address this exact issue.

The route with a clear precedent: the Mālikī position. Egypt’s Dār al-Iftāʾ, asked by a teacher of Qurʾān, says the better course is the majority view, which leaves the disagreement behind. But a woman who finds hardship, and needs to recite or touch for memorising, teaching or teaching work, may follow the Mālikīs and incurs no sin. It rests on the principle that whoever is afflicted with a disputed matter may follow the one who permits it.

Taking another madhhab has conditions, listed in Bughyat al-Mustarshidīn from the Tuḥfa (pp. 17–18):

Know the matter as that madhhab has it, with all its conditions.
The position must not be one that would void a judge’s ruling made by it, such as one contradicting a text, a consensus or a clear analogy.
Do not go hunting for the easiest position in each madhhab.
Do not combine two positions into a result neither would accept.
Do not act on an imam’s view in a matter and then on its opposite (this last one is disputed).

In practice: take the Mālikī permission on Mālikī terms. Recite while the blood flows, stop when it stops, and make ghusl before resuming unless you fear forgetting.

Where this leaves the question. A Shāfiʿī may follow a non-relied-upon position, or the Mālikī one, for her own practice on conditions. She should do it consciously, without presenting it as the Shāfiʿī school’s relied-upon view and without giving it as a fatwā to others. Among the modern sources consulted, the Mālikī route has the clearest precedent: Egypt’s Dār al-Iftāʾ expressly allows a woman in hardship to follow it for memorising, teaching or related work.

Key Arabic passages

Short excerpts from the sources cited above, for readers who want the wording. The Majmūʿ lines are from the Islamweb text and the Bughya lines from the Shamela text (page numbers follow its printed pagination). The Mālikī lines are as quoted in the Dār al-Iftāʾ fatwa cited below.

Source	Arabic	What it says
Al-Nawawī, Majmūʿ 2/387	هذا الذي ذكره من تحريم قراءة القرآن على الحائض هو الصحيح المشهور	The prohibition for the menstruating woman is the sound and well-known position.
Al-Nawawī, Majmūʿ 2/387	حكى الخراسانيون قولا قديما للشافعي: أنه يجوز لها قراءة القرآن	The Khurāsānīs reported an old position of al-Shāfiʿī permitting her to recite.
Al-Nawawī, Majmūʿ 2/387	أراد به مالكا، وليس للشافعي قول بالجواز، واختاره إمام الحرمين والغزالي في البسيط	“Abū ʿAbd Allāh” meant Mālik, and al-Shāfiʿī has no position of permission. Imām al-Ḥaramayn and al-Ghazālī chose this view.
Al-Nawawī, Majmūʿ 2/387	أنها تخاف النسيان لطول الزمان بخلاف الجنب	First reason given for the old position: fear of forgetting, because the period is long, unlike janāba.
Al-Nawawī, Majmūʿ 2/387	أنها قد تكون معلمة فيؤدي إلى انقطاع حرفتها	Second reason: she may be a teacher, and a ban would cut off her work.
Al-Nawawī, Majmūʿ 2/387	فعلى هذا هي كالطاهر في القراءة	On the first reason, she is like a pure woman in recitation.
Al-Nawawī, Majmūʿ 2/387	وأما خوف النسيان فنادر، فإن مدة الحيض غالبا ستة أيام أو سبعة	His answer: fear of forgetting is rare, since a period usually lasts six or seven days.
Al-Nawawī, Majmūʿ 2/387	إجراء القراءة على القلب من غير تحريك اللسان … فجائز بلا خلاف	Running the recitation through the heart without moving the tongue is permitted, without disagreement.
Al-Nawawī, Majmūʿ 2/388	واحتج أصحابنا والجمهور بحديث ابن عمر المذكور، ولكنه ضعيف وبالقياس على الجنب	Our companions and the majority used the Ibn ʿUmar report, which is weak, and analogy with the one in janāba.
Hadith (Ibn ʿUmar)	لا تقرأ الحائض ولا الجنب شيئا من القرآن	“The menstruating woman and the one in janāba do not recite anything of the Qurʾān.”
Hadith (ʿAlī)	كان لا يحجزه شيء عن قراءة القرآن إلا الجنابة	Nothing kept him from reciting the Qurʾān except janāba.
Bughya p. 16	المذهب القديم ليس مذهبا للشافعي	The old madhhab is not al-Shāfiʿī’s madhhab (for the follower).
Bughya p. 16	فمن بلغ رتبة الترجيح ولاح له الدليل أفتى بها	Whoever has reached the rank of tarjīḥ and sees the evidence may give fatwā by it.
Bughya p. 16	ولا يجوز للمفتي أن يفتي الجاهل المتمسك بمذهب الشافعي صورة بغير الراجح منه	A mufti may not give a layperson attached to the Shāfiʿī school anything but the preponderant position.
Bughya p. 17	بل بالمتأخر من القولين إن علم، لأنه في حكم الناسخ منهما	Take the later of the two positions if known, since it stands as the abrogating one.
Bughya p. 19	يجوز تقليد ملتزم مذهب الشافعي غير مذهبه أو المرجوح فيه للضرورة	One committed to the Shāfiʿī school may follow another madhhab, or the non-preferred position in it, in necessity.
Bughya p. 20	فيجوز تقليد القول الضعيف لعمل نفسه كمقابل الأصح والمعتمد والأوجه والمتجه	One may follow a weak position for one’s own practice, such as the opposite of the aṣaḥḥ, muʿtamad, awjah or mutajjih.
Bughya p. 20	لا يجوز تعاطي ما اختلف فيه ما لم يقلد القائل بحله	One may not do a disputed thing unless following someone who declares it lawful.
Bughya p. 20 (al-Kurdī)	تقليد القول أو الوجه الضعيف في المذهب بشرطه أولى من تقليد مذهب الغير	Following a weak position inside the school, with its condition, is better than following another madhhab.
Al-Dusūqī, Ḥāshiya 1/174	المعتمد أنه يجوز لها القراءة حال استرسال الدم عليها	The relied-upon view: she may recite while the blood flows.
Al-Dusūqī, Ḥāshiya 1/174	لا تقرأ حتى تغتسل؛ جنبا كانت أو لا، إلا أن تخاف النسيان	After it stops she does not recite until she makes ghusl, in janāba or not, unless she fears forgetting.
Al-Dardīr, Sharḥ 1/125–126	حائضا لا جنبا؛ لقدرته على إزالة مانعه بخلاف الحائض	The teacher or student may be menstruating but not in janāba, because the latter can remove her impediment.
Al-Dardīr, Sharḥ 1/125–126	بل ولا كامل على المعتمد لمتعلم وكذا معلم على المعتمد	Not even a complete mushaf is barred to the learner, and likewise the teacher, on the relied-upon view.
Maxim (cited by Dār al-Iftāʾ)	من ابتلي بشيء من المختلف فيه فليقلد من أجاز	Whoever is afflicted with a disputed matter may follow the one who permits it.

Sources

Shāfiʿī: al-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ (2/162–163, 2/387–388), text on Islamweb; al-Māwardī, al-Ḥāwī al-Kabīr, vol. 1, pp. 147–149; al-Rāfiʿī, Fatḥ al-ʿAzīz; Ibn Ḥajar, Tuḥfat al-Muḥtāj; al-Shirbīnī, al-Iqnāʿ 1/96; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Bāʿalawī, Bughyat al-Mustarshidīn (Dār al-Fikr; pp. 16–20, 51–52), text on Shamela.
Mālikī: al-Dardīr with al-Dusūqī’s Ḥāshiya (1/125–126, 1/174); al-Ṣāwī, Bulghat al-Sālik; al-Ḥaṭṭāb, Mawāhib al-Jalīl; Ibn Rushd, al-Muqaddimāt; Muḥammad Bashīr al-Shafaqa, Fiqh al-ʿIbādāt; al-ʿAdawī, Ḥāshiya; Ḥabīb b. Ṭāhir, al-Fiqh al-Mālikī.
Fatwas: Egyptian Dār al-Iftāʾ, on reciting and touching for the menstruating woman (also fatwas 22454 and 16885); Azhar Fatwa Center no. 1322.
Hadith grading: al-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ 2/387; Islamonline fiqh entry on the menstruating woman and the Qurʾān (quoting Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Ḥajar); al-Tirmidhī, Sunan.

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