Bathing after menstruation

e11.1 When performing the purificatory bath, one:

(1) begins by saying, "In the name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate";

(2) removes any unclean matter on the body (O: pure or impure);

(3) performs ablution (wudu) as one does before the prayer;

(4) pours water over the head three times, intending the purificatory bath, or to lift a state of major ritual impurity (janaba) or menstruation, or to be permitted to perform the prayer, and running the fingers through one's hair to saturate it;

(5) and then pours water over the body's right side three times, then over the left side three times, ensuring that water reaches all joints and folds, and rubbing oneself.

(6) If bathing after menstruation, a woman uses some musk to eliminate the afterscent of blood (O:by applying it to a piece of cotton and inserting it, after bathing, into the vagina as far as is obligatory (def: (b) below) for her to wash). (N: What is meant thereby is a substance that removes the traces of filth, by any means, and it is fine to use soap.)

Two things(N: alone) are obligatory for the validity of the purificatory bath:

(a) having the intention (4 above) when water is first applied to the parts that must be washed;

(b) and that water reaches all of the hair and skin (N: to the roots of the hair, under nails, and the outwardly visible portion of the ear canals, though unlike ablution the sequence of washing the parts is not obligatory), even under the foreskin of the uncircumcized man, and the private parts of the non virgin woman which are normally disclosed when she squats to relieve herself.

(n: In the Hanafi school, rinsing out the mouth and nostrils (defL e5.7) is obligatory for the validity of the purificatory bath (al-Lubab fi sharh al-Kitab (y88) 1.14) It is religiously more precautionary for a Muslim never to omit it, and Allah knows best.)