Muslim ladies: During my menstruation, my 13 year old son asks me why I'm not fasting or praying. What to say?

Question

My family is pious and we pray 5 times a day n my son when he was a kid, never bothered bout why i didnt pray sometimes, but these days he is growing up n getting more religious, and keeps asking me why I dont pray, i keep saying i'll pray later or already prayed. But know i cant fast 4 Ramadan. What to tell him?

Answer 1

You should tell him the truth. There's nothing wrong with that.

My mom explained it to me while I was 9 years old. Well, I am a girl. But I think it won't hurt if you do tell him. It's just menstruation.

Answer 2

I cannot honestly answer according to your religion as I am not a Muslim woman, but I can say that most women are probably grateful for not having to pray during menstruation lol. They are bloated and cramping and probably not feeling very prayerful if they have to go down on their knees and bend all the way over .... you get the physical drift of what I'm saying? But as to why menstruation is considered impure, I imagine it goes back to the days when in the desert, Moses and his folks got the laws on bleeding. At that time, blood disease could wipe out an entire group of people! They had no antibiotics etc. So women were told basically that during menstruation they were to go to the edge of camp and not return until it was done (for which many hardworking women were probably grateful!). As to fasting, it is seriously not a good idea to fast during menstruation, there is too much going on in a womans body and she should not refrain from nourishment, it would eventually affect her health. Hope that helped!

Answer 3

I think at 13 he's certainly old enough to be told the truth. But I have a question. I don't know a lot about being Muslim, so I was wondering why you cannot pray or fast while you're menstruating?

Answer 4

13 is quite old and he is in grade 8 so he should already know about the human body. I say, just tell him that it is a woman's problem that you go through every now and then that prevents women from praying or fasting.

EDIT: I guess the low-life atheists and the radical Christians have contaminated your post. :) Just ignore the attention-seekers.

Hotmomma - you cannot pray or fast because when blood comes out it breaks your wudu(the wash to clean yourself before praying). Just like you cannot have urine or stool on your clothes. You have to be clean in order to pray or fast.

Answer 5

Tell him the truth. He is old enough where he should know why women break the fast and old enough to know facts of life.

Answer 6

your son now is a man, tell him the truth that there are some days in the month women didn't do the religion duties

Answer 7

As-salam-mu-alaikum sister

You should not eat in front of those who are fasting, so that they will not realize that you are not fasting.
Eat at sehri and iftaar times and if you need to eat during the day, do so when no one is around or eat where you will not be seen by those who are fasting.

At prayer times perform your ablution as normal and sit on a prayer mat and engage yourself in tasbih and zikr.

When you feel your son is ready then explain to him that women cannot fast when they are menstruating.

And Allah knows best!

Answer 8

honesty is the best policy
he needs to learn tolerance for people who are of a different belief than him
even family members
teach him tolerance and how life is different for everyone

Answer 9

If I were you, I would try to hide it from him for some time more till he is mature enough to understand such things. But if you think he is mature enough, then explain him everything in accordance with the religious facts. Or tell his dad to do so :)

Answer 10

Just tell him that ALLAH(SWT) says that it is haraam for women to fast or pray on their periods and that when a woman bleeds it makes her unclean and that ALLAH(SWT) is protecting the women from dying by exempting them from fasting and praying while on their period. There's no reason to lie to him.