The Ruling on Touching the Mushaf Without Wudu

Q: What is the ruling on touching the mushaf without wudu, or moving it from one place to another, and what is the ruling on the reading mentioned?

A: It is not permissible for a Muslim to touch the mushaf while he is not in a state of wudu, according to the majority of scholars, and this is the position of the four imams (may Allah have mercy on them) and the position on which the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to issue rulings. A sound hadith, free from objection, has been reported in this matter from the hadith of 'Amr ibn Hazm (may Allah be pleased with him) : that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) wrote to the people of Yemen: This is a good hadith with various chains that support one another, and from this it is known that it is not permissible for a Muslim to touch the mushaf except in a state of purity from both major and minor ritual impurity.
Likewise, moving it from one place to another is not permissible if the one moving it is not in a state of purity. However, if he touches it or moves it by means of a barrier, such as taking it in a wrapping or in a bag, or by its binding, there is no harm. But touching it directly while not in a state of purity is not permissible, according to the correct view held by the majority of scholars, for the reasons mentioned above.
As for reading, there is no harm in reading from memory while in a state of minor ritual impurity, or in reading while someone holds the Qur'an for him and opens it for him. However, the one in a state of major ritual impurity (janabah) does not read, because it is established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that nothing prevented him from reading except janabah. Ahmad narrated with a good chain from 'Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) : The point is that the one in a state of janabah does not read, neither from the mushaf nor from memory, until he performs ghusl. As for the one in a state of minor ritual impurity who is not in a state of janabah, he may read from memory but must not touch the mushaf.
Here is an issue related to this matter, which is the issue of the menstruating woman and the woman with post-natal bleeding: do they read or not? There is disagreement among scholars on this. Some said: they do not read, and they equated them with the one in a state of janabah. The second opinion is that they may read from memory without touching the mushaf, because the duration of menstruation and post-natal bleeding is long, and they are not like the one in a state of janabah, because the one in a state of janabah can perform ghusl immediately and read.
As for the menstruating woman and the woman with post-natal bleeding, they cannot do so until after their purity, so it is not correct to equate them with the one in a state of janabah, for the reasons mentioned above. The correct view is that there is no barrier to their reading from memory; this is the stronger position, because there is nothing in the evidence that prevents this, but rather there is what indicates this. It is established in the two Sahihs from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said to 'A'ishah when she menstruated during Hajj: The pilgrim reads the Qur'an, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not exclude her, which indicates the permissibility of reading for her. Likewise, he said to Asma' bint 'Umayyis when she gave birth to Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr at the miqat during the Farewell Pilgrimage. This indicates that the menstruating woman and the woman with post-natal bleeding may read the Qur'an, but without touching the mushaf. As for the hadith of Ibn 'Umar from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: "The menstruating woman and the one in a state of janabah do not read anything of the Qur'an," it is a weak hadith. In its chain is Isma'il ibn 'Iyadh from Musa ibn 'Uqbah, and the scholars of hadith weaken Isma'il's narration from the people of the Hijaz, saying that he is good in his narration from the people of Sham, his own people, but he is weak in his narration from the people of the Hijaz. This hadith is from his narration from the people of the Hijaz, so it is weak.