Islamic Fiqh > Purification (Tahara) > Menstruation (hayd), lochia and irregular bleeding > Teaching a woman the rules of hayd: ruling and definition
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Updated on 25 September 2026 at 3:23 PM
This part belongs to the full section: All sections of this part.
Hayd, meaning menstruation, is a reality regulated by the Sharia through precise rulings on which depend purity, prayer, fasting, Quran recitation, pilgrimage and many rules of marriage and divorce. The jurists of the 4 Sunni schools developed, from the Quran and the Sunna, a detailed framework: the definition and colors of the blood, the age and duration limits of hayd and of purity, the status of the pregnant woman, the purity of the body of the menstruating woman, and the consequences for prayer and fasting. This page follows faithfully the leaves of the juridical encyclopedia al-Mawsua al-fiqhiyya devoted to the rules of hayd (first part), with the positions attributed exactly to each school and the references of the classical works.
The Hanbalis define hayd as natural blood that flows in a state of health, without a childbirth cause, from the depth of the uterus, affecting a female habitually once she reaches puberty, at known times (Kashshaf al-Qina' 1/196; al-Rawd al-Murbi' 1/105). Al-Ruhaybani explains that it is not corrupted blood: Allah created it for the wisdom of nourishing and sustaining the child, and it is created from the 2 fluids, that of the man and that of the woman. When the woman conceives, this blood is diverted, by Allah's permission, to nourish the child: hence the pregnant woman does not menstruate; when she gives birth, Allah transforms it into milk from which the child feeds, hence the nursing mother rarely menstruates.
When the woman is free of pregnancy and nursing, the blood remains with no outlet, settles, then flows each month 6 or 7 days, sometimes more, sometimes less, her month lengthening or shortening according to what Allah has placed in the temperaments. This is why the Prophet ordered honoring the mother 3 times, and the father once (Matalib Uli al-Nuha 1/239). Hayd also bears other names, among them al-tamth, al-'irak and al-nifas.
It is obligatory upon the woman to learn what she needs of the rules of hayd, and upon her husband or guardian to teach her what she needs of them if he knows them; otherwise he lets her go out to ask the scholars, and it is unlawful for him to prevent her, unless he himself asks and informs her so that she has no further need. If he does not permit her, she may go out without his permission. The knowledge of hayd belongs to the sciences whose learning is unanimously obligatory.
Ibn Nujaym the Hanafi (may Allah have mercy on him) said: knowing the questions of hayd is among the greatest of important matters, because of the countless rulings that depend on it: purity, prayer, Quran recitation, fasting, seclusion (i'tikaf), pilgrimage, puberty, intercourse, divorce, the waiting period, istibra' and other rulings. It was among the greatest of duties: the rank of the knowledge of a thing follows the rank of the harm of ignorance of it, and the harm of ignorance of the questions of hayd is more severe than that of ignorance of anything else; care must therefore be taken to know them, even at length, for the one seeking accomplishment aspires to it, with no regard for the dislike of the people of idleness (al-Bahr al-Ra'iq 1/199).
Al-Juwayni (may Allah have mercy on him) said: hayd is a state by which the daughters of Adam are tried, by nature and constitution, a customary trial recurring in repeated cycles; and for anything so, the motives abound to transmit the principles that need touches. Such is the rule of the constancy of custom: it is not permitted that the age be devoid of the knowledge of the minimum and the maximum of hayd overall, as long as people care to establish the prayers (Ghayath al-Umam, p. 517).
The majority of the jurists (jumhur) hold that the yellowish discharge (sufra) and the murky discharge (kadra) occurring during the days of hayd are hayd: such is the ordinary reality of what the woman sees in the time of possibility. In the time of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), women would send her the pad (durja), meaning the padding of cotton or the like placed to know whether any trace of hayd remains (a precision of Ibn Hajar in Fath al-Bari 1/500; al-kursuf designates cotton), containing the yellow and the murky, and she would say to them, meaning thereby purity from hayd:
Do not hurry until you see the white discharge (al-qassa al-bayda).Authentic hadith (sahih), reported by Malik in al-Muwatta' (128), al-Bayhaqi in al-Sunan al-Kubra (1486) and Abd al-Razzaq in al-Musannaf (1159); also cited suspended by al-Bukhari (1/121)
Al-sufra and al-kadra are a serum-like discharge close to pus: al-Ramli explains that they are not among the colors of blood, and Ibn Hajar al-Haytami stated explicitly that they are 2 waters, not 2 bloods. According to one view among the Shafi'is and the Hanbalis, sufra and kadra are not hayd, for they do not have the color of blood, and because of the saying of Umm 'Atiyya (may Allah be pleased with her): We did not count the yellowish and the murky as anything (reported by al-Bukhari, 320).
Among the Malikis, Ibn al-Majashun says: if they occur during the days of hayd, it is hayd; otherwise, no. Al-Dusuqi reports that al-Mazuri and al-Baji made this the school position, and that it was also said they are not hayd at all, a view reported in al-Tawdih.
Outside the days of hayd, the jurists differ on their status. The Hanafis, the Hanbalis and the Shafi'is, along with one Maliki view, hold that they are not hayd outside the days of menstruation, because of the saying of Umm 'Atiyya (may Allah be pleased with her): We did not count the yellowish and the murky as anything after purity (authentic hadith, reported by Abu Dawud, 307). The Malikis, and the preponderant view among the Shafi'is, hold that it is hayd when the woman of settled habit (mu'tada) sees it after her habit; among the Shafi'is she refrains during her habitual days.
Al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) said: the correct and preponderant view is that sufra and kadra occurring in the time of possibility, which is 15 days, are hayd, whether the woman is a beginner (mubtada'a) or of settled habit (mu'tada), whether the discharge goes against her habit or matches it, just as if the blood were black or red and stopped at 15 (al-Majmu' 3/416). Among the Malikis, the woman observes an additional waiting (istidhkar) of 3 days.
Ibn Abd al-Barr (may Allah have mercy on him) reports Malik's divergence: in al-Mudawwana, Ibn al-Qasim transmits from him, about the woman who sees sufra and kadra during her hayd days and outside them, that Malik said: it is hayd, even if she saw no blood alongside. Ibn Abdus also reports in al-Majmu'a, from Ali ibn Ziyad from Malik: what the woman sees of sufra and kadra during the days of hayd or during the days of purity-checking is like blood, and what she sees after that is istihada; this view is sound, but the first is the most famous from him (al-Istidhkar 1/324-325; see also Hashiyat Ibn Abidin 1/192, Ahkam al-Qur'an of al-Jassas 2/32, Hashiyat al-Dusuqi 1/268, Sharh Mukhtasar Khalil 1/203, Mawahib al-Jalil 1/364, al-Dhakhira 1/214, 373 and 382, al-Majmu' 3/416, al-Awsat of Ibn al-Mundhir 2/234 and 236, Mughni al-Muhtaj 1/113, Fath al-Bari 1/500, Umdat al-Qari 3/309, al-Mughni 1/431, al-Insaf 1/376, Majmu' al-Fatawa 26/220, al-Ikhtiyarat 1/29, Nihayat al-Muhtaj 1/340).
According to the majority of the jurists, Hanafis, Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis in the school position, the minimum age at which a woman may menstruate is 9 lunar years: no case of hayd before it is established, in reality or in custom, and no limit is set by the Law or by language such that observed existence could follow it. The young girl does not menstruate, per the saying of Allah:
and those who have not menstruated
Surah al-Talaq, 4
The criterion is observed existence: no woman has been found who habitually menstruates under this age. Hayd blood, which Allah created for the wisdom of the growth and nourishment of pregnancy, does not concern one unfit to bear a child, just like semen: from one the child is created, the other nourishes it; neither is found in a child, and their existence is a sign of puberty. Since the minimum age of a girl's puberty is 9, it is therefore the minimum age of hayd.
It is reported from Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her): When a girl reaches 9 years, she is a woman; this is also reported elevated to the Prophet, meaning: she has the legal status of a woman. Imam al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) said: the earliest menstruating women I heard of are the women of Tihama, who menstruate at 9; and I saw a grandmother 21 years old. This indicates she conceived under 10, and her daughter likewise; and per the correct view there is no difference between hot lands and cold lands.
Consequently, if a 9-year-old girl sees blood she leaves the prayer, for she saw it in a time of possibility; if she sees blood under 9, it is corrupted blood in every case, for it cannot be hayd. Ibn Qudama (may Allah have mercy on him) reports that al-Maymuni asked Ahmad about a 10-year-old girl who had seen blood: it is not hayd; on this basis neither 9 nor 10 is a time of hayd, and the Qadi concluded that the first time hayd can exist is 12 years, the age at which a boy's puberty can be valid; but the first view is more correct (al-Mughni 1/459-460; see also Bada'i' al-Sana'i' 1/158, Tabyin al-Haqa'iq 1/54, al-Durr al-Mukhtar 1/477, al-Ifsah 1/104, Hashiyat al-Dusuqi 1/270, al-Umm 5/214, al-Majmu' 3/396, al-Iqna' of al-Shirbini 1/99, al-Kafi 1/74, al-Insaf 1/355, Kashshaf al-Qina' 1/202).
As for the maximum age of menstruation, the scholars differ. Abu Hanifa, per what al-Hasan ibn Ziyad reported from him, said: from 55 to 60 years. Muhammad ibn al-Hasan said: for Byzantine women (rumiyyat), 55 years; for native-born women (mawallidat), 60; but the fatwa among them, or the chosen position for the age of menopause, is 55 (Hashiyat Ibn Abidin 1/502-503, al-Mughni 1/459, al-Ifsah 1/110).
Malik and al-Shafi'i said: it has no limit; one returns to the customs of the lands, which vary: menopause is early in hot lands and late in cold lands. Imam Ahmad said, per one narration: its limit is 50 years for Arab women and for others; per the second: 60 years; per the third: if they are Arab women, the limit is 60, and if Nabatean or Persian women, 50.
Imam Ibn Qudama (may Allah have mercy on him) expounds the question: when the woman sees blood at 50, she leaves neither fasting nor prayer, and she makes up the fast as a precaution; if she sees it after 60, the difficulty vanishes and it is certain it is not hayd: she fasts, prays and makes up nothing. The narrations from Ahmad differ: per what al-Khirqi transmits here, she is not with certainty out of hayd before 60, and what she sees between 50 and 60 is doubtful: she leaves neither prayer nor fasting for it, for their obligation is certain and is not dropped by doubt, and she makes up the obligatory fast as a precaution, for its existence was certain while what she fasted during the blood days is doubtful in validity, so the certain is not dropped by it.
Another narration from Ahmad indicates she does not menstruate after 50; so said Ishaq ibn Rahawayh: her status, for the blood she sees, is that of the mustahada, per what is reported from Aisha: When she reaches 50, she leaves the limit of hayd, and: A woman will see no child in her womb after 50. It is also reported from him that Persian women reach menopause at 50, and the women of Banu Hashim and other Arab women at 60: this is the position of the people of Medina, per what al-Zubayr ibn Bakkar reported in the book of lineages: no woman bears at 50 except the Arab, and none bears at 60 except the Qurashite. He mentioned that Hind bint Abi Ubayda ibn Abdullah ibn Zam'a bore Musa ibn Abdullah ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Hasan ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib at 60 years.
Ahmad, asked about an Arab woman seeing blood after 50, said: if it recurs twice or thrice, it is hayd, for the criterion in this matter is observed existence. Hayd has been found from trustworthy women reporting it of themselves after 50: it must therefore be held to be hayd as before 50; the discussion concerns blood coming at the time of her habit, in the form she used to see: existence is here the proof of hayd, as it was before 50; as for obliging prayer and fasting despite it, that is precaution given the disagreement. The correct view is that there is no difference between Arab women and others: they do not differ in the remaining rules of hayd, nor here; and what is reported from Aisha is no proof, for the existence of hayd is a real matter whose criterion is observed existence, and existence contradicts her saying: Musa ibn Abdullah ibn al-Hasan was borne by his mother after 50, and hayd after 50 has been found in its proper form, which cannot be denied.
If it is said this blood is not hayd despite its description, its time and its habit, without any text, that is arbitrariness and unacceptable. But after 60 the difficulty vanishes: it is certain it is not hayd, for none has been found, and it is known that the woman reaches a state of menopause, per the saying of Allah:
And those who no longer expect menstruation among your women
Surah al-Talaq, 4
Ahmad, about the old woman who sees blood, said: it is not hayd, it is like a wound; if she washes, it is good; Ata' said she is like the mustahada: the 2 sayings are one in meaning, for this blood, if it is not hayd, is corrupted blood, and her status is that of the mustahada and of the one with urinary incontinence, per the rule already passed (al-Mughni 1/459-460).
The jurists differ on the minimum and the maximum of the duration of hayd. The Hanafis hold that the minimum of hayd is 3 days with their nights, which they assess at 72 hours, and the maximum 10 days with their nights; below 3 days it is istihada, and beyond 10 days it is istihada (Bada'i' al-Sana'i' 1/154, Sharh Fath al-Qadir 1/162, al-Bahr al-Ra'iq 1/201, Sunan al-Tirmidhi 1/221, al-Majmu' 3/405, al-Ifsah 1/106, al-Tamhid 16/71).
Ibn Abidin (may Allah have mercy on him) reports that this was transmitted from 6 Companions through multiple chains whose criticisms offset one another, so that the weak among them rises to the level of good (Hashiyat Ibn Abidin 1/476). Ibn al-Humam explains that the legal quantities are not grasped by personal opinion: their rule, when transmission stops short, is elevation to the Prophet; the soul rests, so numerous are the reports from the Companions and the Successors, at considering that the elevated version is what the weak narrator rendered well; in short, it has a basis in the Sharia (Sharh Fath al-Qadir 1/162, al-Bahr al-Ra'iq 1/201, Bada'i' al-Sana'i' 1/154, Sunan al-Tirmidhi 1/221, al-Majmu' 3/405, al-Ifsah 1/106).
The Hanafis support this with 2 hadiths:
The minimum of hayd is 3 days, and its maximum 10 days.Hadith of Wathila ibn al-Asqa' (may Allah be pleased with him), reported by al-Daraqutni (847) and, via Ibn al-Jawzi, in al-'Ilal (1/643); the chain contains Hammad ibn Manahil, deemed unknown by al-Daraqutni, and Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Anas, deemed weak
The minimum of hayd is 3, and its maximum 10.Reported from Abu Umama elevated to the Prophet; weak hadith, reported by al-Tabarani in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir (8/129)
Hayd is 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.Reported by Ibn Adi in al-Kamil, via Ibn al-Jawzi in al-'Ilal al-Mutanahiya (2/383), through al-Hasan ibn Shabib, from Abu Yusuf, from al-Hasan ibn Dinar, from Mu'awiya ibn Qurra, from Anas, elevated; Ibn al-Jawzi said: this hadith is not authentic from the Messenger of Allah; al-Hasan ibn Dinar was called a liar by the scholars, among them Shu'ba; Isma'il ibn 'Ulayya accused him of brazen lying; Ahmad said his hadith is worth nothing; al-Daraqutni: abandoned. The version stopping at Anas was produced by al-Bayhaqi in al-Sunan al-Kubra (1/322)
Al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) concludes: the hadiths of Wathila, Abu Umama and Anas are all weak, and the hadith scholars agree on their weakness; al-Daraqutni then al-Bayhaqi exposed their defects in al-Khilafiyyat then in al-Sunan al-Kubra (al-Majmu' 3/408). The Hanafis answer that Anas could only say this upon revelation-based knowledge (tawqif).
The Malikis set no temporal minimum: they specified the minimum in quantity, which is one gush (daf'a); if the woman sees one gush, it is hayd, they said, with respect to worship; for the waiting period and istibra', a day or a part of a day is required. The maximum of hayd among them varies with the types of women, who are 3 with respect to hayd: the mubtada'a (first-time), the mu'tada (of settled habit) and the pregnant woman.
The mubtada'a, whom blood befalls for the first time: the maximum of her days of hayd, if the blood continues, is 15 days; beyond, it is blood of illness and corruption: she fasts, prays, is taken in intercourse and follows the other rulings; if her blood stops before 15, she is thereby pure; if it persists, no more than 15 days are counted.
The mu'tada, whose habit is settled (and the habit is settled from once): if the bleeding continues beyond her habitual days, she waits upon herself 3 days in excess of the maximum of her habit, called istidhkar, on condition that the total of her hayd days with the days of waiting not exceed 15. Thus one accustomed to 5 days, whose bleeding then continues, stays 8 days; if it continues the third time, 11; the fourth, 14; then, if it continues again, she stays the fifteenth day without exceeding it; she is then pure: she fasts, prays and is taken in intercourse; the blood flowing after that is istihada blood, and she is mustahada.
The pregnant woman: the prevailing custom is that no blood comes from her, but exceptionally blood may affect her, and its ruling varies with the months of pregnancy. If the blood continues after 2 months, its maximum duration is 20 days up to 6 months; from 6 months to the end of her pregnancy, 30 days; beyond that it is blood of illness and corruption. The beginning of pregnancy is not like its end: the greater the pregnancy, the more the blood abounds; the meaning is that the pregnant woman of 3, 4, 5 or 6 months stays 20 days, and of 7 months to her term 30 days, then she is mustahada.
If she menstruates in the first or the second month, she is like the non-pregnant mu'tada: she stays her habit, and istidhkar is the position of Malik he returned to, and it is the preponderant. Ibn Yunus said: per Malik's returned-to position, she stays, in the first and the second month, the length of her days and of the additional waiting, for pregnancy does not show in one or 2 months: she is presumed not pregnant until it shows, and it shows only at 3 months. The second view is that the ruling of hayd in the first and second month is that of after it, the third month: it is Malik's abandoned position (Hashiyat al-Dusuqi ala al-Sharh al-Kabir 1/270 and 272; Manh al-Jalil 1/169; Sharh Mukhtasar Khalil 1/204-205; Tahbir al-Mukhtasar 1/209-210).
The Shafi'is and the Hanbalis, in the school position, hold that the minimum of hayd is a day and a night: the Law mentioned it without limitation, it has no limit in language or in the Sharia, so one returns to usage, as with seizure, possession and separation; and a habitual hayd of one day has been found, and nothing less. Ata' said: I saw among the women one who menstruates one day. Al-Shafi'i said: I saw a woman concerning whom it was established for me that she never ceased menstruating one day and no more. Abu Abdullah al-Zubaydi said: Among our women were some who menstruated one day, meaning with its night; and Ishaq ibn Rahawayh reported from Bakr ibn Abdullah al-Muzani: My wife menstruates 2 days.
The maximum is 15 days with their nights: Ata' saw one who menstruates 15 days; according to one view among the Hanbalis, 17. On this basis, what is under a day and a night is istihada, and what exceeds 15 days is istihada. The Shafi'is and the Hanbalis stated explicitly that the prevailing hayd is 6 or 7 days, per the hadith of the Prophet to Hamna bint Jahsh (may Allah be pleased with her) when she asked him (al-Umm 1/67; al-Majmu' 3/398 and 407; Kifayat al-Akhyar 1/57; al-Mughni 1/367 and 402; al-Insaf 1/358; al-Rawd al-Murbi' 1/109; Kashshaf al-Qina' 1/204; Taftih al-Tahqiq of Ibn al-Jawzi 1/199; al-Tamhid 16/71):
Menstruate 6 days, or 7 days, in Allah's knowledge. Then perform the major ablution, and when you see yourself pure and cleansed, pray 23 nights or 24 nights with their days, and fast: that suffices you. Do likewise every month, as women menstruate and as they purify themselves, at the appointed time of their hayd and their purity.Good hadith (hasan), reported by Abu Dawud (287), al-Tirmidhi (128) and Ibn Majah (510); al-Tirmidhi said: a good and authentic hadith, and he reported that al-Bukhari and Ahmad said likewise
The jurists agree that there is no maximum for the tuhr, the purity between 2 menstruations: a woman may never menstruate, or menstruate only once a year. Abu al-Tayyib, among the Shafi'is, reports: a woman informed me about her sister that she menstruates every year one day and one night, while healthy, conceiving and bearing, her nifas being 40 days (al-Majmu' 3/406).
They differ, however, on the minimum of the tuhr between 2 menstruations. The Hanafis, the Malikis per the preponderant view, the Shafi'is, and Ahmad per one narration, set it at 15 days with their nights: the month ordinarily never lacks a hayd and a tuhr, and if the maximum of hayd is 15 days, the minimum of tuhr must be so likewise; the Hanafis further rely on the consensus of the Companions (Hashiyat Ibn Abidin 1/477, Bada'i' al-Sana'i' 1/156, Ahkam al-Qur'an of al-Jassas 2/30, Umdat al-Qari 3/306 and 314, Hashiyat al-Dusuqi 1/270, al-Istidhkar 1/348, al-Tamhid 16/73, al-Taj wa al-Iklil 1/368, al-Khulasa al-Fiqhiyya 1/49, Hashiyat al-Adawi 1/193, Sharh Mukhtasar Khalil 1/204, al-Awsat 2/255, al-Majmu' 1/398-399, al-Insaf 1/358).
Other narrations are reported from Malik: Ibn Abd al-Barr (may Allah have mercy on him) said that the saying of Malik and his companions fluctuated on this minimum. Ibn al-Qasim transmitted from him: 10 days; it is also reported from him: 8 days, which is Sahnun's view; Abd al-Malik ibn al-Majashun said: the minimum of tuhr is 5 days, and he reported it from Malik, a version some Baghdad Malikis inclined to; Muhammad ibn Maslama said: 15 days, and it is the choice of most Baghdad Malikis, and the view of al-Shafi'i, Abu Hanifa and their companions, and al-Thawri, and it is the correct one. For Allah set the waiting period of the woman with courses at 3 qur', and that of the one not menstruating, from old age or youngness, at 3 months: each qur' substitutes a month, and the month combines tuhr and hayd; if hayd is little, tuhr is much, and conversely; since the maximum of hayd is 15 days, tuhr must be 15 days for the single month to contain hayd and tuhr, per the prevailing usage of most women and their nature, with the indicators of the Quran and the Sunna (al-Istidhkar 1/348).
Among the Malikis, the benefit of this fixing appears when the mubtada'a menstruates, the blood stops before 15 days, then returns before a full tuhr has elapsed: she joins this second episode to the first, as if the blood had not stopped, and it is thereafter blood of illness; if it returns after the completion of the tuhr, it is a renewed hayd, counted in the waiting period and subject to the rest of its rulings (Sharh Mukhtasar Khalil 1/204, Bulghat al-Salik 1/144-145).
The Hanbalis, in the school position, set the minimum of the tuhr between 2 menstruations at 13 days. They rely on what is reported from Ali ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him): a woman came to him, divorced by her husband, claiming she had menstruated 3 times in one month, purified at each course and prayed. Ali said to Shurayh: Rule on it. Shurayh said: if she brings testimony from the inner circle of her family, of acceptable religion and reliability, testifying that she menstruated 3 times in a month, purified at each course and prayed, she is truthful; otherwise she is a liar. Ali then said: Qalun, making 30 with his hand, that is, in Byzantine: excellent, or: you have hit, you have done well (reported by al-Bukhari suspended, chapter: if she menstruated 3 menses in a month, 1/505; connected by al-Darimi 855, Sa'id ibn Mansur in his Sunan 1309, Ibn Abi Shayba 4/200 and al-Bayhaqi in Ma'rifat al-Sunan wa al-Athar 12/381; Ibn Hajar said in Fath al-Bari 1/506: its men are trustworthy).
The Hanbalis said: Ali could only say this upon revelation-based knowledge; it is a Companion's saying that became famous with no known opposition, and the existence of 3 menstruations in one month proves that 13 days are certainly a valid tuhr. Imam Ahmad said: there is no dispute that the waiting period is completed within one month when testimony establishes it. The prevailing tuhr is the remainder of the lunar month after the prevailing hayd: 24 or 23 days among the Shafi'is and the Hanbalis, per the hadith of Hamna bint Jahsh, and 25 among the Hanafis (al-Mughni 1/403, al-Insaf 1/358).
The jurists do not differ on this point: the tuhr interspersed between 2 bloods, if it reaches 15 days or more, separates between them. If the stretch of purity separating 2 bloods is shorter than this span, they differ on its counting as a separator.
The Hanafis agree that the tuhr separating 2 bloods, if it is under 3 days, is not counted a separator. Beyond that, 6 views are reported among them, all transmitted from the Imam (Abu Hanifa), of which the 3 most famous follow.
The first is the view of Abu Yusuf: the tuhr interspersed between 2 bloods does not separate; it is treated like continuous blood, on condition that the blood surround both edges of the interspersed tuhr; hayd may thus begin with a tuhr and end with one. Thus the mubtada'a who sees one day of blood, 14 days of purity, then one day of blood: the first 10 days are hayd; and the mu'tada who sees, before her habit, one day of blood, 10 of purity, then one day of blood: if those 10 are her habit, they form her hayd, otherwise she is referred back to the days of her habit.
The second view sets as its condition that the blood surround both edges of the total duration of the hayd: hayd may then neither begin nor end with a tuhr. Thus the mubtada'a who sees one day of blood, 8 days of purity, then one day of blood: the 10 days are hayd; and the mu'tada who sees, before her habit, one day of blood, 9 days of purity, then one day of blood: none of it is hayd; nifas follows the same assessment on this view.
The third is the view of Muhammad: the condition is that the tuhr be equal to the 2 bloods or less within the hayd duration; if it is more, it separates. One then looks: if on each side there is what can be made hayd, the earlier is hayd; if only one side allows it, it is the hayd and the other is istihada; if neither can be made hayd, all of it is istihada; and hayd may not begin or end with a tuhr. Thus the mubtada'a who sees one day of blood, 2 days of purity, then one day of blood: the 4 days are hayd, for the interspersed tuhr is under 3 days and does not separate by agreement; she who sees one day of blood, 3 days of purity, then 2 days of blood: the 6 days are hayd by equality; she who sees 3 days of blood, 5 days of purity, then one day of blood: the 3 days are hayd, for the tuhr prevailed and became a separator, and only the earlier can be made hayd.
Ibn Abidin (may Allah have mercy on him) sums up: this is the essence of what is in the commentaries of al-Hidaya and other works. Muhammad's view was validated in al-Mabsut and al-Muhit, and the fatwa rests upon it. In al-Hidaya, taking Abu Yusuf's view is easier; many of the later scholars gave fatwa by it, as it is easier for the mufti and the questioner: Siraj says it is the preferable, Fath that it is Abu Hanifa's other view, and Nihaya mentions the second narration, chosen in al-Bahr by the authors of the matns, though not validated in the commentaries (Hashiyat Ibn Abidin 1/483-484, Bada'i' al-Sana'i' 1/165-167, Fath al-Qadir 1/120-121, Tabyin al-Haqa'iq 1/62, al-Bahr al-Ra'iq 1/216-217, al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya 1/37).
The Malikis, on this question of intermittent bleeding, say: if the tuhr is broken into by blood and the 2 are equal, that is, the days of purity equal the days of blood (blood one day, cessation one day, and so on), or the days of blood exceed (blood 2 days, cessation one, and so on), or the days of blood are fewer than the days of purity (blood one day, cessation 2, and so on), and the cessation does not reach half a month, the woman assembles (talfiq): she gathers the days of blood alone, dropping the days of purity, whenever they fall short of half a month. For the tuhr, by agreement, 15 consecutive days entirely free of blood, day and night, are required, per the detail already given: mubtada'a, mu'tada or pregnant. The mubtada'a assembles half a month; the mu'tada, her habit plus her istidhkar; the pregnant woman of 3 months, the half and its like; of 6 or more, 20 and its like; then she is mustahada (al-Sharh al-Kabir with Hashiyat al-Dusuqi 1/170 and 173; Hashiyat al-Adawi 1/189; al-Taj wa al-Iklil 1/369; Sharh Mukhtasar Khalil 1/205-206; al-Dhakhira 1/380; Manh al-Jalil 1/169).
Linguistically, talfiq is joining, matching, and by extension fabricated falsehood; in technical usage the jurists employ it in the sense of joining: the woman whose blood is intermittent, seeing one day of blood and one day of purity, has her days of blood gathered together and counted as hayd, while her days of purity form a valid tuhr in which she prays and fasts. The benefit of the disagreement appears for the blood coming after the assembly of the maximum of her hayd (her habit, or half a month, 15 days): per the relied preponderant view she is mustahada, that is pure, and the blood is blood of illness and corruption; per the opposite view it is hayd.
The assembling woman is obliged to wash each time the blood stops during the days of assembly, for she does not know whether blood will return, unless she expects it to return before the expiry of the prayer time she is in: she is then not commanded to wash. She fasts if pure before dawn, prays and is taken in intercourse after her purity: she may even pray and fast through all the days of her hayd, if the blood comes by night and stops before dawn until twilight sets, so that nothing of prayer and fasting escapes her; she enters the mosque and performs the tawaf of al-ifada; her divorce, however, is forbidden during those days, and the husband is compelled to take her back.
The Shafi'is hold that when her blood stops, she having seen one day and night of blood, one day and night of purity, or 2 and 2, and so on, she is in 2 situations: either the blood stops without exceeding 15 days, or it exceeds them.
First situation: the blood does not exceed 15 days; 2 famous views compete. The first: the days of blood are hayd and the days of purity are tuhr, a view called talfiq (assembly) or laqt (gathering); on this view purity counts as tuhr for fasting, prayer, tawaf, recitation, the major ablution, seclusion, intercourse and the like, but not for the waiting period: divorce during it is innovated (bid'i). The second view, the more correct among them: all the days, of blood and of purity alike, are hayd, a view called sahb (dragging), on condition that the purity be bracketed by 2 bloods within the 15; otherwise it is tuhr without disagreement. Sahb, linguistically, is dragging a thing upon the ground, like a garment; among the Shafi'is it is giving the purity interspersed between the days of hayd the ruling of hayd: so named because the ruling of hayd is dragged over the purity, the whole being made hayd.
The intermittence, whether one day and night of blood then one day and night of purity, or 2 and 2, 5 and 5, 6 and 6, 7 and 7 and a day, one and 10, one and 5, one day and night of blood then 13 of purity then one day and night of blood, or any other combination, receives the same ruling: if the whole does not exceed 15 days, the days of blood are hayd without disagreement, and for the days of purity interspersed between the bloods, the 2 views above.
Al-Nawawi reports from his companions: on both views, if she sees purity on the second day she acts as the pure do, without disagreement, for we do not yet know she is an assembling woman, given the possibility that the cessation lasts. They said: she must therefore wash, fast and pray; she may recite the Quran, touch the mushaf, perform tawaf and seclusion, and the husband may take her, no disagreement on any of this. If the blood returns on the third day, it becomes clear she is an assembling woman: if we say talfiq, the validity of the fasting, the prayer, the seclusion and the permissibility of intercourse and the rest become clear; if we say sahb, the invalidity of the acts of worship done on the second day becomes clear: she must make up the fasting, the seclusion and the tawaf performed in fulfillment of an obligation, likewise the prayers performed for a make-up or a vow; but no making up of the performed prayer is due, for it was a time of hayd, in which there is no prayer. If she had fasted voluntarily, the author of al-Bayan said it becomes clear there is no reward in it; a debatable remark: it should rather be said that she has reward for the intention of obedience, but none for the fast itself if invalid; that is probably his intent. Our companions said: it becomes clear that the husband's intercourse was not permitted, but without sin, given the ignorance. And each time purity returns in these days up to the fourteenth, the washing, the prayer, the fasting and the permissibility of intercourse become due again, as on the second day; if the blood does not return, all stands as valid; if it returns, the ruling is as described for the second day (Rawdat al-Talibin 1/329-332, al-Majmu' 3/519-526, where there is a long and very important discussion not reproduced for fear of length; see also Asna al-Matalib 1/112-113, al-Bajirmi ala al-Khatib 1/308).
Second situation: the blood exceeds 15 days; she becomes mustahada like any other woman whose blood exceeds that span. If she saw one day and night of blood then the like of purity, and so on until exceeding 15 intermittently, there is no disagreement that no days of hayd are picked out for her across the whole month, even if the total picked were under 15; she is a mustahada whose hayd mixed with istihada, a woman of intermittence: once mustahada, the distinction between her hayd and her istihada rests, as for the non-assembling woman, on returning to habit or to distinction (tamyiz).
The Hanbalis, on this question of the tuhr between 2 bloods, hold that whenever the woman sees the tuhr between 2 bloods she is pure: she washes, and prayer and fasting bind her, without distinguishing little from much tuhr; per the saying of Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him): Whenever she sees purity, even for an hour, let her wash (reported by Ibn Abi Shayba in al-Musannaf 1367, al-Darimi in his Sunan 800 and Abu Dawud 286; authenticated by al-Albani in Sahih Abi Dawud 264, with the wording: The mustahada, when she sees the deep-red blood, does not pray; and when she sees purity, even for an hour, let her wash and pray).
Ibn Qudama (may Allah have mercy on him) qualifies: it is defensible that the cessation of blood, when it is under a day, is not a tuhr, building on the narration cited for nifas, that the woman in childbirth seeing purity under a day does not acquire the rulings of the pure; so likewise here, and it is the correct view, by Allah's will: the blood flows at times and stops at others, and imposing washing upon one pure but an hour is a hardship removed by the saying of Allah:
and has not placed upon you in the religion any difficulty
Surah al-Hajj, 78
And were an hour's cessation made a tuhr with no regard to the blood after it, it would lead to no settled hayd ever remaining for her. Thus the cessation of blood, if under a day, is not a tuhr, unless she sees what indicates it, such as cessation at the end of her habit or the sight of the white discharge; then, if the blood stops at 15 or less, all is hayd: she washes after each day and prays during the tuhr.
If her blood crosses 15 days, she is mustahada, per the saying of the Prophet: That is only a vein, and not a menstruation, and because the whole of the blood cannot be hayd. If she saw 3 days of blood, then 12 days of purity, then saw it 3 days: the first is hayd, seen in a time of possibility; the second is istihada, for it cannot be the beginning of a hayd, not being preceded by the minimum tuhr, nor part of the first hayd, for it exceeds the 15, and a single menstruation cannot have more than 15 days between its 2 edges. If between 2 bloods there are 13 days or more and it recurs, they are 2 menstruations, each able to stand as a separate one, the minimum tuhr separating them; if the whole can be one menstruation, with no more than 15 days between its edges, like one who sees 2 days of blood, 10 of purity, then 3 days of blood, and it recurs, it is one menstruation, for its span does not exceed the maximum of hayd (al-Mughni 1/456, al-Kafi 1/82).
The author of Matalib Uli al-Nuha states that the tuhr occurring during a menstruation is a valid tuhr: she washes in it, prays, fasts, performs tawaf and recites the Quran, and intercourse is not disliked in it, for it is a tuhr in reality; and in al-Insaf: her ruling is, per the correct view of the school, that of the pure in all the rulings (Matalib Uli al-Nuha 1/261, al-Insaf 1/9 and 372, Kashshaf al-Qina' 1/205-207). In sum: Abu Hanifa and al-Shafi'i, per the preponderant view from him, say that the tuhr between 2 bloods is hayd; Imam Malik, al-Shafi'i per one view, and Imam Ahmad hold that the purity interspersed between 2 bloods is tuhr: in it she washes, prays, fasts, performs tawaf, recites the Quran and follows the other rulings per the detail given (al-Majmu' 3/520, al-Mughni 1/54).