Sometimes when a woman is menstruating and is asked if she is going to pray, she replies with the euphemism ‘I’m on holiday’. I can understand the want of a woman to hide or down play embarrassment about not praying due to her period, but to say ‘on holiday’ is, whether she knows it or not, offensive and negative towards the act of praying.
It could be interpreted in two ways. One being that the woman means holiday in a sarcastic way and is not at all happy about the situation of not praying.
The other way and the way that seems most obvious to me is that the woman is happy with the laziness of not having to leave what she is doing, get up, make wudoo and pray. She can sleep in at fajr and may even leave some other acts of ibada that are done around the prayer, such as dhikr. For this type of woman, it does seem there are some holiday qualities. Allah(swt) reminds us on a number of occasions in His Book that this life is the enjoyment of deception
“...the life of this world is only the enjoyment of deception.” Surah Aal Imran: 185
“And the life of this world is nothing but play and amusement but far better is the house in the
Hereafter for those who are pious (muttaqun). Will you not then understand?” Surah al-An’aam: 32
The time of not praying is not really a holiday, holidays are fun, menstruation is not. Not praying is certainly not fun, especially in times of turmoil, the worst thing in these times of trial is not being able to pray or during times of big decision making, you may feel that your istikhara is not complete due to not being able to pray the two rakah. (during menstruation you can still say the du’a of istikhara when seeking Allah’s guidance with decisions).
Now that the world is at war with our deen, we want to be praying more than ever, so referring to not praying due to menstruation as a holiday is a reflection on how lightly some of us are taking the deen. Besides, even if you were on holiday, would you not pray while there?
Using the word holiday in this context can also be interpreted as mocking the religion and belittling the act of prayer. Narrated Abu Hurayrah (raa), the Messenger of Allah (sas) said that the only thing between a man and disbelief is prayer. Indeed the women are excused during the time of menstruation and do not need to make up their missed prayers, but all I am advising is not to use the term holiday and respect the salat and its importance in our religion.
My advice to the women is to still get up at fajr when not praying to remember your Lord and to help prevent any bad habits slipping in during that time. Make the du’a at the times of the adhan and make dhikr between adhan and the iqama. For my sisters in the west you need to be particularly observant due to not having the adhan to remind you, so keep an eye on your watch. Better still, start making plans for hijrah.
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7 comments:
I have to admit that sometimes I went on holiday even when I wasn't supposed to. Often, I was having too much fun socializing at the masjid and would have to make up the prayers later. You can certainly see dear sister where I've ended up because of this. I think many sisters will appreciate this post and be called to make more effort with salat.
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Also: SubhanAllah what a very important reminder. I used to feel astagfirullah happy when my period came as it gave me the holiday feeling but now I relize the graveness of these thoughts and have stoppped. There is text can't remember where wsaying "if a woman makes wudu and sits making thikr the amount of time it takes her normally to pray it will be counted for her like THE BEST PRAYER SHE EVER PRAYED."
SUBHANALLAH eh!
Salaams Sis:
Here in the West, I usually hear sisters merely say, "I'm not praying today" and everyone understands what she means :)
Very beneficial post sister.
Salam,
just dropped by to say I love your blog and this post is mashallah very well written! Great job and so true!
An excellent reminder MashaAllah!!
MashAllah, a great reminder for all of us on how we have to choose our words carefully.
I cringed when I heard the school Principal refer to the girls who are on "holiday". She was reminding them to be quiet while the other girls prayed. Does anyone have an an alternative term? Is there an Islamic term to refer to the women who are not praying due to having their period?
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