We have a halaqa every Thursday in our mosque. Can women attend the halaqa when they are menstruating? The halaqa is held in a tiled area in the men’s praying area which is all carpeted except for the tiled area. Men pray on the carpeted area not on the tiled area. We hold our halaqa in the morning from 11 to 1:00pm and finish at least half an hour before Zuhr prayer. We cannot hold the halaqa in the women’s area because it is all carpeted and as such is all used for prayers. Are we transgressing by attending the halaqa inside the masjid?

All praise be to Allah, and may His peace and blessings be on the greatest messenger, Muhammad.

As for staying in the masjid, menstruating women may not stay in the masjid according to the hanafis, malikis, shafe’ees and hanbalis. According to a less popular narration in the Hanbali school and Imam al-Muzaney, a great student of Imam ash-Shafe’ee, she may stay in the masjid, since the hadeeth forbidding her from it is weak, and they argued that she is not like the  junub (one with major ritual impurity), who may not stay in the masjid by consensus, since her hayd (menstruation) may last for many days (up to one third or one half of her fertile life).

Despite the fact that it is very unlikely that the agreement of the four schools would be wrong, one cannot deny that the second opinion is strong, and barring the menstruating women from the mosques where they can learn and benefit themselves and accompany their children needs to be based on unequivocal evidence, which is lacking in this case.

It is also important to note that the Islamic centers in the west are not only masjids, but they include the masjid, which is the prayer hall and other utility rooms. Outside of the prayer hall, they have stores and advertise on bulletin boards, which are all acts forbidden in the masjid, so it is the agreed upon 'urf (custom) that these areas are not part of the masjid. Therefore, menstruating women who hold the position of the majority may be able to come and stay outside the prayer hall and still listen to the lectures and accompany their husbands and/or children.

As for the area where you attend the halaqah, being tiled vs. carpeted is not sufficient to consider that area outside of the masjid (prayer area.) This means staying there would not be permissible according to the majority and would be according to the minority position mentioned here above. It is important for our communities to take this issue in consideration when building a masjid or restructuring one.

Allah knows best.