Must women remove their braids for ghusl?
Ghusl Purification: Understanding the Difference Between Janabah and Menstrual Bathing
Summary
Sh. Ali Mashhour continues his detailed analysis of the book of purification, specifically addressing the rulings of ghusl (ritual bathing). He clarifies an important misconception: women are not obligated to remove their braids when performing ghusl after janabah (sexual impurity), though they must do so for ghusl after menstruation. Sh. Ali Mashhour supports this with authenticated narrations from the Prophet's companions, including Salamah and Asma, explaining the wisdom behind this distinction—that post-menstrual ghusl is more stringent and involves additional cleansing agents and procedures. He emphasizes that this ruling applies equally to both men and women regarding janabah ghusl, though the post-menstrual ghusl has stricter requirements.
Note: This transcript was generated using YouTube's automatic captioning, with AI-assisted cleanup for readability. It may contain inaccuracies due to background noise, audio quality, or limitations of the transcription software — particularly during Arabic recitation. Listener discretion is advised; please refer to the original video for precise wording.
Continuing in the book of purification in the chapters of regarding bathing al-ghusl. The author after giving the bare minimum of ghusl, the two pillars ghusl, identifying them, and then giving us the fullest version of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's ghusl in the most comprehensive He then gives us some other additional details that are commonly unknown or are commonly misunderstood. He says.
[Silence]
The first point here is that it is not obligatory for a woman to take her braids out to bathe for janabah. And we've mentioned this before, but here the author mentions it with its detailed evidence cited that ghusl of janabah it is not obligatory for a woman to take her braids out to bathe for ghusl janabah. And it is only obligatory upon her to take her braids out And it is only obligatory for her to take her braids out for ghusl after her cycle, ghusl after postpartum. And And the wisdom behind this is very obvious. And that is that one is far more frequent than the other, or perhaps more frequent than the other. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives us a general description of the rulings. Wa ma ja'ala alaykum fid-dini min He cites then a narration on the authority of Salamah. She says, "I said, 'O Messenger of Allah, indeed I am a woman who likes to tighten her braids very tight. If is it Do I need to take my braids out every time I bathe for janabah?" He said, "No. It is enough for you to merely pour the water on your head three times, and then to pour the water on the remainder of your body, and you will hence be purified.".
[Silence]
Asma is the older sister, one of the older sisters of Aisha radiyallahu anha, and they have different mothers. Asma's mother is was a mushrikah, a non-Muslim, from Quraysh. Details vary on what happened to her, whether she accepted Islam or not. However, Aisha's mother did accept Islam. And so Aisha mentions that Asma, her sister,.
[Arabic recitation]
Wasallam regarding the rulings on bathing after menstrual cycle.
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What's throwing me off of is in this here they have the shed down on the wrong letter. And every time I hit it's tripping over the same piece of furniture every time.
[Arabic recitation]
Tongue twister. So, in this narration, Aisha she mentions that her sister Asma asked the Prophet regarding the the description or the details of bathing after her menstrual cycle. And so, this here tells us that not only did the companions understand that there is somewhat of a difference between the menstrual cycle bathing a post menstrual bathing and a janaba bathing. So, she asked and so the Prophet described to her that she is to take water and put sidr in it. Remember sidr we talked about it? It's a type of leaf from a tree in the desert and this is their soap back then, right? It has cleaning properties in its sap. And so, the Prophet said she should take water and take sidr and purify herself. Now, notice how he says and clean herself and purify herself. Meaning what? Meaning her lady parts. And then, she is to pour the water onto her head and to work the water deeply into the roots of her hair to ensure that the water has reached her scalp entirely. Now, this is very different than what he told Salama with respect to the of janaba, correct? And then he said and then she is to take She is to take a a loofah kind of they used to use the if you ever notice a date palm between the bark and the actual meats of the tree the base of the tree, right? There's a very squishy kind of almost like insulation there. If you take it, it's it's almost cotton that comes out which is very rough. They used to use this for all kinds of things. One of the things they used it for was to clean and scrub. And there were other things that they used for this, but today we use the same texture, but we use it made out of plastic usually or something of the sort. So, he mentions to take a rag or to take some piece of fabric and to put musk or perfume and to perfume herself and to purify herself. And so, Asma, she didn't really understand exactly and she wanted to make sure that she was getting it right. So, she said, "How does she purify herself?" So, the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wasallam's response was Subhanallah, purify herself. he doesn't want to spell it out. She is a female, he is a male, right? And so, the other women explained to her out of his presence. And she asked him about ghusl of janabah. And he didn't say, "Well, it's the same thing." If it was the same thing, he would have just responded, "Ghusl al-janabah is like what I just told you." So, it isn't the same exact thing in the sense that it is not as stringent as the ghusl or the post-menstrual ghusl. So, he says, "She is to take the water and to purify herself and to purify herself well and then she is to pour the water onto her head and scrub to get the water or work the water to her scalp and then to pour the water on the rest of herself." So, the post- menstrual ghusl is more intensive. It is involving other cleaning agents as well and a woman must take out her braids. A woman must take out her braids. But for janabah, she does not have to take out her braids and the same goes for a man. He does not have to take out his braids for janabah.
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[Arabic recitation]
Is is that for janabah he mentions here the female, the woman, not having to take her braids out for janabah. And this obviously is very much for men and women. There's no difference in this type of ghusl. What goes for one goes for the other because they both have to bathe. However, there is a difference between that and the strictness in one someone taking out the braids for post-menstrual ghusl. And I think that that is very clear.
[Arabic recitation]