Is it permissible for a menstruating woman and a person in a state of major ritual impurity to touch the Qur'an and recite it?

The questioner : The question is whether a menstruating woman and a man in a state of major ritual impurity have the right to touch the Qur'an or recite it for the sake of worship or memorization.

The Shaykh : No, we do not find in the Book or the Sunnah anything indicating the prohibition of a menstruating woman or a person in a state of major ritual impurity from touching the Qur'an or reciting it. In fact, we may find among the rules and principles what indicates the opposite, namely that it is permissible. This is because one of the principles upon which many branches are based is their saying that the original ruling for things is permissibility. Here, touching the Qur'an and reciting from the Qur'an are both matters whose original ruling is permissibility. Therefore, one should not depart from this original ruling except with evidence from the Book or the authentic Sunnah. And there is absolutely nothing in the Book or the Sunnah that prevents a person in a state of major ritual impurity from touching the Qur'an or reciting it, nor does it prevent a menstruating woman. Indeed, we may find within the Sunnah what supports this original ruling. For example, Imam Muslim narrated in his Sahih from the hadith of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) that she said: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) would remember Allah in all his states." This general statement made by the Lady Aisha in her hadith covers all the times of the Messenger (peace be upon him), meaning whether he was in a state of purity or not, whether he was in a state of minor or major ritual impurity. What confirms this general meaning in this hadith of Aisha is that she also told us that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) would sometimes wake up in a state of major ritual impurity due to a wet dream, and in Ramadan, the dawn would break upon him while he was in a state of major ritual impurity from the wet dream, and he would fast and then take a full ritual bath.
The point of using this as evidence is that we know from other hadiths as well that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) would not sleep until he recited Surah Tabaarak, and he would not sleep on many nights until he recited Surah al-Muzzammil. Also, in some hadiths, there is encouragement to recite the Verse of the Throne, and that whoever recites it, the house and those in it are protected from the evil of Satan, and similar to that are the known dhikr in books of dhikr. So, what indicates that the Messenger (peace be upon him), on that night when he was sleeping in a state of major ritual impurity, did not recite what he prescribed, if that is the correct expression, for people to recite before lying down to sleep.
So our previous hadith, along with these observations, indicates to the Muslim that there is no restriction on a person in a state of major ritual impurity from reciting something from the Qur'an. And there is no doubt that our research is, as stated in the question, whether there is a prohibition on touching or reciting the Qur'an.

The questioner : Touching the Qur'an.

The Shaykh : Touching it, and reciting it.

The questioner : And reciting it.

The Shaykh : This is it. So I spoke about both issues, and now I have branched out the discussion on one of them, which is recitation. I say that what preceded indicates that the original ruling in this issue is permissibility. But when we say we do not find what prevents it, we mean that we do not find what makes it forbidden. However, there is what indicates that reciting the Qur'an without ritual purity is disliked. That is because Imam Abu Dawud narrated in his Sunan that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) relieved himself one day, and soon a man met him and greeted him. The Messenger (peace be upon him) hurried to the wall and performed dry ablution, then returned the greeting and said We find in this hadith, which is of course a hadith with an authentic chain, that the Prophet (may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him) disliked mentioning the name of Allah without ritual purity. That is because the greeting, as he (peace be upon him) said in the authentic hadith, is So when he wanted to return the greeting to the one who greeted him, he disliked returning it except in a state of purity. And since purity with water was not available to him until after the greeter had passed, he hurried to perform dry ablution with the wall and returned the greeting.
If this is his (peace be upon him) manner, that he would say , meaning that I would say "And upon you be peace" only in a state of purity, then it is even more fitting that reciting the Qur'an is disliked compared to giving the greeting. Therefore, we conclude that reciting the Qur'an by one in a state of ritual impurity, even if it is minor ritual impurity, let alone one in a state of major ritual impurity, is permissible but disliked. And we cannot say that this dislike is a dislike of prohibition, due to the previous hadith of the Lady Aisha that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) would remember Allah in all his states. There is no need to question whether the dhikr here did not mention the Qur'an, because we say that the first thing that comes to the mind of a Muslim who understands the Arabic language is that the first thing that falls under the term "dhikr" is the Noble Qur'an, because Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has called it "dhikr" in more than one verse, such as in the famous verse and in the other verse So the saying of the Lady Aisha that he would remember Allah means that he would recite the words of Allah in all his states, whether he was in a state of major ritual impurity or in a state of purity. But in his previous saying , there is an indication that it is better for the Muslim not to remember Allah except in a state of complete purity.
But this is only said regarding the person in a state of major ritual impurity, whether male or female, since both of them are able to purify themselves, even by dry ablution when they are unable to use water. Once we know this, the menstruating woman has another ruling. She has a ruling that is easier than the previous ruling regarding the person in a state of major ritual impurity. That is because it can be said to the person in a state of major ritual impurity, "Purify yourself," but it is not said to the menstruating woman in the Shari'ah, "Purify yourself." Even if she were to make an effort and take a full ritual bath intending to purify herself, she would not be able to purify herself, even if she bathed in the waters of the seven seas. So she is unable to purify herself in the Shari'ah. Therefore, it is presumed that the Wise Lawgiver is more lenient with her than with the man in a state of major ritual impurity, whom He permitted to recite the Qur'an while in a state of major ritual impurity, albeit with dislike, as we explained earlier. As for the menstruating woman, if this were said to her, it would mean causing her difficulty and turning her away from reciting the Qur'an during her menstruation, which can sometimes last a full week and sometimes more.
For this reason, we find in some authentic hadiths a clear indication that it is permissible for a menstruating woman to recite the Qur'an. The first of these is the hadith of the Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) during the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) Hajj, when he was in a place near Mecca called Saraf. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) entered upon Aisha and found her crying. He asked her, "What is the matter with you?" She said, "Yes, O Messenger of Allah." He said (peace and blessings be upon him), In this hadith, there is an indication that a menstruating woman is not prevented from entering the Sacred Mosque, because he told her, He did not say to her, "Do not enter the mosque," but rather he permitted her by the general text, So what does the pilgrim do? Every pilgrim, whether male or female, must enter the Sacred Mosque, must perform the tawaf and the sa'y between al-Safa and al-Marwah, must remember Allah, recite the Qur'an, and engage in other prescribed dhikr, and then sit in the mosque to worship Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and remember Him. So when we find the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) telling her, "Do everything the pilgrim does," and among the things the pilgrim does, starting with entering the mosque, he has thus permitted her to enter the Sacred Mosque. He has thus permitted her to enter the mosques of the world, because the Sacred Mosque, as you all know, is the best mosque on earth. If the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) permitted her to enter the Sacred Mosque, but not to pray, then it is even more permissible for her to enter any of the mosques of the world. Then, after this reasoning regarding the mosque, and consequently regarding recitation, he also excluded prayer and tawaf, so everything else remains on the original ruling and what is included in this general text. So the menstruating woman can read the Qur'an in a specific surah, or in all its forms, and she can read the entire Qur'an. And ... this ruling indicates that nothing changes in the rulings applicable to a woman in her state of purity when she exits the other state, which is menstruation. What indicates this is what Muslim narrated in his Sahih from the Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, The khamrah is the prayer mat, the prayer rug. She said, "O Messenger of Allah, I am menstruating." He said (peace and blessings be upon him), She was assuming that a menstruating woman's touch on a garment would defile it, even if it did not make it ritually impure. Therefore, she was surprised when she heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say to her, She said, "I am menstruating." He said, We say on the basis of this that her menstruation is not in her feet, nor in her body. So if she enters the mosque and sits in it, there is no harm on her, because her menstruation is not on the surface of her body. Finally, this meaning is confirmed by a hadith narrated by al-Bukhari in his Sahih from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came to a group of Companions, among whom was Abu Hurayrah. Abu Hurayrah withdrew and slipped away, then returned with his head dripping water. He asked him (peace and blessings be upon him) about his absence, and he said, "I was in a state of janabah." It seemed he disliked that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) would shake his hand.
That is, he imagined what the Lady Aisha had imagined. She said, "I am menstruating," as if her menstruation was in her hand. And he was in a state of janabah, as if the janabah was in his hand. So he meant ... with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) to shake hands with a man in a state of janabah. He saw him smiling, so he said to him (peace and blessings be upon him), So why do we prohibit them from reciting the Qur'an or touching the Qur'an? There is absolutely nothing that prevents that. Rather, in these texts, from which it is derived, with some ... and reflection and contemplation, is the permissibility of recitation, and also the permissibility of touching, on the original basis that the believer is pure and does not become ritually impure.