Why do women make up missed fasting days from menstruation but not missed prayers?

A menstruating woman does not fast during her period, and unlike missed prayers, which are not made up, missed fasting days must be repaid later. Aisha, the Prophet's wife, was once asked by another woman why this was the case, and she explained: 'We used to menstruate at the time of the Messenger of Allah and we were ordered to make up the fasts but not ordered to make up the prayers' (Sahih Muslim 335). The distinction reflects the different practical burden of each act: prayer is repeated five times daily, so making up missed prayers over months of periods across a woman's life would be an enormous hardship, whereas a missed Ramadan is at most a handful of days a year, made up at a woman's own pace before the next Ramadan. Fasting while menstruating is not merely disliked but invalid — if a woman began the day fasting and her period starts before sunset, that day's fast is broken and must be repaid, even if only shortly before iftar. This rule is treated as settled across the schools of law, with the underlying wisdom widely explained as Allah lightening a recurring, unavoidable burden rather than making it heavier.

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