By Dr. Tamara Grey – Author, translator, and public speaker
By the will of Allah (swt), women menstruate once a month. During this time, they do not have to perform their Salah and they are not required to make it up at a later time. However, due to this gap in prayers, we are struggling with establishing a regular habit, especially if we come to this attitude of ‘I am on vacation’, which somehow has become a message that is being passed back and forth among Muslim women.
We have to learn how to have a different language – express ourselves differently. In Arabic, you say: “Maalee Salah. (I do not have prayer.)” I think such translation into English is dangerous psychologically.
Maybe in Arabic it is a not a big deal, because Salah is separate from Dua and Dhikr, but in English we have only one word for all three. And so, instead of saying ‘I do not have prayer’, we can say ‘I am in my week of Dua and Dhikr’.
If we do just a little bit of math and add it up, then from the beginning of a woman’s menstrual life until the end, a typical average woman may spend up to ten years of her life… menstruating. Thus, if we consider those ten years as ‘vacation from Allah’ (God forbid!) or ‘I am not praying’, then it means we spend ten years of our life without any connection to Allah (swt). This is truly scary! And this is not from Islam; rather, it is from our own culture that we have built.
One may ask: well, isn’t it true that if you pray regularly, and you are not praying because you are menstruating, you still get the same reward? Absolutely! However, if we are coming to this matter with the attitude of vacation and the attitude of not connecting to Allah (swt), then it really becomes a serious spiritual question. Even during this week, I wake up for Fajr anyway to read my Dua book, to say Istaghfar, even if for three minutes, and to take a moment for saying: “I am still this Muslim believing person who wants to connect with you. I am still a worshipper of Allah (swt).”
Transcribed by Faiza Rizwan – Hiba’s volunteer and a mother of four
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