Islamic Fiqh > Purification (Tahara) > Menstruation (hayd), lochia and irregular bleeding > Hayd: durations, colors and onset
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Updated on 24 September 2026 at 1:14 PM
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 four 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 two 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 six or seven 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 three 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 two waters, not two 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 fifteen 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 fifteen (al-Majmu' 3/416). Among the Malikis, the woman observes an additional waiting (istidhkar) of three 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 nine 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 nine, it is therefore the minimum age of hayd.
It is reported from Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her): When a girl reaches nine 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 nine; and I saw a grandmother twenty-one years old. This indicates she conceived under ten, and her daughter likewise; and per the correct view there is no difference between hot lands and cold lands.
Consequently, if a nine-year-old girl sees blood she leaves the prayer, for she saw it in a time of possibility; if she sees blood under nine, 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 ten-year-old girl who had seen blood: it is not hayd; on this basis neither nine nor ten is a time of hayd, and the Qadi concluded that the first time hayd can exist is twelve 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 fifty-five to sixty years. Muhammad ibn al-Hasan said: for Byzantine women (rumiyyat), fifty-five years; for native-born women (mawallidat), sixty; but the fatwa among them, or the chosen position for the age of menopause, is fifty-five (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 fifty years for Arab women and for others; per the second: sixty years; per the third: if they are Arab women, the limit is sixty, and if Nabatean or Persian women, fifty.
Imam Ibn Qudama (may Allah have mercy on him) expounds the question: when the woman sees blood at fifty, she leaves neither fasting nor prayer, and she makes up the fast as a precaution; if she sees it after sixty, 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 sixty, and what she sees between fifty and sixty 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 fifty; 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 fifty, she leaves the limit of hayd, and: A woman will see no child in her womb after fifty. It is also reported from him that Persian women reach menopause at fifty, and the women of Banu Hashim and other Arab women at sixty: 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 fifty except the Arab, and none bears at sixty 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 sixty years.
Ahmad, asked about an Arab woman seeing blood after fifty, 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 fifty: it must therefore be held to be hayd as before fifty; 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 fifty; 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 fifty, and hayd after fifty 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 sixty 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 two 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 three days with their nights, which they assess at seventy-two hours, and the maximum ten days with their nights; below three days it is istihada, and beyond ten 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 six 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 two hadiths:
The minimum of hayd is three days, and its maximum ten 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 three, and its maximum ten.Reported from Abu Umama elevated to the Prophet; weak hadith, reported by al-Tabarani in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir (8/129)
Hayd is three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten.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 three 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 fifteen 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 fifteen, she is thereby pure; if it persists, no more than fifteen 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 three 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 fifteen. Thus one accustomed to five days, whose bleeding then continues, stays eight days; if it continues the third time, eleven; the fourth, fourteen; 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 two months, its maximum duration is twenty days up to six months; from six months to the end of her pregnancy, thirty 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 three, four, five or six months stays twenty days, and of seven months to her term thirty 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 two months: she is presumed not pregnant until it shows, and it shows only at three 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 two days.
The maximum is fifteen days with their nights: Ata' saw one who menstruates fifteen days; according to one view among the Hanbalis, seventeen. On this basis, what is under a day and a night is istihada, and what exceeds fifteen days is istihada. The Shafi'is and the Hanbalis stated explicitly that the prevailing hayd is six or seven 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 six days, or seven days, in Allah's knowledge. Then perform the major ablution, and when you see yourself pure and cleansed, pray twenty-three nights or twenty-four 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 two 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 forty days (al-Majmu' 3/406).
They differ, however, on the minimum of the tuhr between two menstruations. The Hanafis, the Malikis per the preponderant view, the Shafi'is, and Ahmad per one narration, set it at fifteen days with their nights: the month ordinarily never lacks a hayd and a tuhr, and if the maximum of hayd is fifteen 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: ten days; it is also reported from him: eight days, which is Sahnun's view; Abd al-Malik ibn al-Majashun said: the minimum of tuhr is five days, and he reported it from Malik, a version some Baghdad Malikis inclined to; Muhammad ibn Maslama said: fifteen 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 three qur', and that of the one not menstruating, from old age or youngness, at three 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 fifteen days, tuhr must be fifteen 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 fifteen 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 two menstruations at thirteen 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 three 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 three times in a month, purified at each course and prayed, she is truthful; otherwise she is a liar. Ali then said: Qalun, making thirty 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 three 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 three menstruations in one month proves that thirteen 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: twenty-four or twenty-three days among the Shafi'is and the Hanbalis, per the hadith of Hamna bint Jahsh, and twenty-five among the Hanafis (al-Mughni 1/403, al-Insaf 1/358).
The jurists do not differ on this point: the tuhr interspersed between two bloods, if it reaches fifteen days or more, separates between them. If the stretch of purity separating two bloods is shorter than this span, they differ on its counting as a separator.
The Hanafis agree that the tuhr separating two bloods, if it is under three days, is not counted a separator. Beyond that, six views are reported among them, all transmitted from the Imam (Abu Hanifa), of which the three most famous follow.
The first is the view of Abu Yusuf: the tuhr interspersed between two 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, fourteen days of purity, then one day of blood: the first ten days are hayd; and the mu'tada who sees, before her habit, one day of blood, ten of purity, then one day of blood: if those ten 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, eight days of purity, then one day of blood: the ten days are hayd; and the mu'tada who sees, before her habit, one day of blood, nine 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 two 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, two days of purity, then one day of blood: the four days are hayd, for the interspersed tuhr is under three days and does not separate by agreement; she who sees one day of blood, three days of purity, then two days of blood: the six days are hayd by equality; she who sees three days of blood, five days of purity, then one day of blood: the three 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 two 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 two days, cessation one, and so on), or the days of blood are fewer than the days of purity (blood one day, cessation two, 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, fifteen 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 three months, the half and its like; of six or more, twenty 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, fifteen 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 two and two, and so on, she is in two situations: either the blood stops without exceeding fifteen days, or it exceeds them.
First situation: the blood does not exceed fifteen days; two 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 two bloods within the fifteen; 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 two and two, five and five, six and six, seven and seven and a day, one and ten, one and five, one day and night of blood then thirteen of purity then one day and night of blood, or any other combination, receives the same ruling: if the whole does not exceed fifteen days, the days of blood are hayd without disagreement, and for the days of purity interspersed between the bloods, the two 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 fifteen 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 fifteen 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 fifteen; 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 two bloods, hold that whenever the woman sees the tuhr between two 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 fifteen or less, all is hayd: she washes after each day and prays during the tuhr.
If her blood crosses fifteen 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 three days of blood, then twelve days of purity, then saw it three 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 fifteen, and a single menstruation cannot have more than fifteen days between its two edges. If between two bloods there are thirteen days or more and it recurs, they are two 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 fifteen days between its edges, like one who sees two days of blood, ten of purity, then three 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 two bloods is hayd; Imam Malik, al-Shafi'i per one view, and Imam Ahmad hold that the purity interspersed between two 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).
The jurists differ on the blood flowing from the pregnant woman: is it hayd blood, or blood of illness and corruption? The Hanafis, the Hanbalis and the Shafi'is per one view hold that the blood flowing from the pregnant woman is blood of illness and corruption, not hayd. They rely on the hadith of Abu Sa'id (may Allah be pleased with him) about the captives of Awtas:
A pregnant woman is not to be taken until she delivers, nor one without child until she has had one menstruation.Authentic hadith (sahih), reported by Abu Dawud (2157), al-Darimi (2295) and Ahmad (11244)
The Prophet made the existence of hayd the sign that the womb is free, which shows the two do not combine. The same follows from the hadith of Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both): he divorced his wife while she was menstruating; Umar mentioned it to the Prophet, who said:
Order him to take her back, then to divorce her while pure or pregnant.Reported by Muslim (1471)
The holders of this view said: he made pregnancy the sign of the absence of hayd, just as he made purity the sign of its presence. They add: hayd is the name of blood leaving the womb, but the pregnant woman's blood does not leave, for Allah's customary order is that when she conceives, the mouth of the womb closes and nothing leaves it: it is therefore not hayd. Consequently the pregnant woman does not leave the prayer for the blood she sees, for it is corrupted blood, not hayd; the same holds for fasting, seclusion, tawaf and the like, and her husband is not barred from her, for she is not menstruating (Ahkam al-Qur'an of al-Jassas 2/60, Bada'i' al-Sana'i' 1/162-163, Hashiyat Ibn Abidin 1/477, al-Majmu' 3/409 onward, Rawdat al-Talibin 1/340, al-Ifsah 1/109, al-Mughni 1/458, Manar al-Sabil 1/69, al-Tahqiq of Ibn al-Jawzi 1/203).
The Hanbalis specify, however, that what the pregnant woman sees one day, two days or three days before delivery is nifas blood; and they also say that it is recommended for the pregnant woman to wash when the blood stops, as a precaution and to exit the disagreement.
The Malikis, the Shafi'is per the more correct view, and Imam Ahmad per a narration chosen by Shaykh al-Islam (Ibn Taymiyya), hold that the pregnant woman's blood is hayd when its conditions are met. Al-Shirazi argues: it is a blood that nursing does not prevent, so pregnancy does not prevent it either, like nifas. Al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) explains: the nursing mother, prevailingly, does not menstruate, and likewise the pregnant woman; but if blood is seen during nursing, it is hayd by agreement: so too in pregnancy; the two are alike in rarity and should be alike in ruling, namely that it is hayd. As for his reference to nifas, he means the woman who bears two children separated by six months and sees blood between them: if we say it is nifas, she is pregnant and nursing and her blood is nifas; the meaning is that nifas is prevented neither by nursing nor by pregnancy, and hayd is not prevented by nursing, so it should not be prevented by pregnancy, all the more in nifas (al-Majmu' 3/409-410, Rawdat al-Talibin 1/341, al-Ikhtiyarat al-Fiqhiyya 47).
The Malikis rely on what is in al-Muwatta' from Malik: it reached him that Aisha, wife of the Prophet, said of the pregnant woman who sees blood that she leaves the prayer (al-Muwatta' 131). Al-Qarafi comments: it was a consensus, that of the people of Medina; and just as nifas is possible in pregnancy when one of the two children is delayed, so is hayd. And Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), delighted by the face of the Messenger of Allah, said: Had the poet seen you, he would have composed his poetry only about you. The poet is Abu Kabir al-Hudhali (Amir ibn al-Hulis), whose verses say: When you look at the radiance of his face, it flashes like the lightning of a smiling cloud; a man preserved from every trace of menstruation, from the corruption of nursing with child, and from every wasting disease.
The meaning is that his mother conceived him in purity, with no residue of hayd, bore him with no disease carried from her womb, and did not nurse him while pregnant. The proof is that the pregnancy did not occur during hayd, and she (Aisha) was not rebuked, for were hayd to flow over the child in the womb, it would give his skin a dusky tinge through its blackness, making him swarthy and lacking brightness: this proves the matter was well known among them. As for the verse's indication, it holds by way of prevalence: hayd in pregnancy is little and rare, and does not contradict the indication of the prevalent (al-Ishraf ala Masa'il al-Khilaf 1/195, al-Dhakhira 1/387, Hashiyat al-Dusuqi 1/271, al-Taj wa al-Iklil 1/368, Sharh Mukhtasar Khalil 1/205, Manh al-Jalil 1/168, al-Ifsah 1/109).
The jurists of the four schools agree on the purity of the body of the menstruating woman, of her sweat and of her leftovers, on the permissibility of eating what she cooks and kneads, of consuming the liquids she touched, of eating with her and living with her, without any dislike. For the Jews, when a woman among them menstruated, would not eat with her nor stay with her in the house; the Companions of the Prophet asked about it, and Allah revealed:
And they ask you about menstruation.
Surah al-Baqara, 222
The Prophet then said:
Do everything except intercourse.Reported by Muslim (302)
The news reached the Jews, who said: this man wants to leave nothing of our affair without opposing us in it. Usayd ibn Hudayr and Ubbad ibn Bishr came and said: O Messenger of Allah, the Jews say so and so, and we would rather not cohabit with them; the face of the Messenger of Allah then changed (reported by Muslim, 302). The Prophet also said to Aisha, when he asked her to hand him the prayer mat from the mosque and she replied: I am menstruating:
Your menstruation is not in your hand.Reported by Muslim (291)
The Messenger of Allah would drink from Aisha's leftover (may Allah be pleased with her) while she menstruated, and place his mouth on the very spot she drank from (Muslim, 300); and she would wash the head of the Messenger of Allah while she menstruated (Muslim, 297).
Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Jarir (al-Tabari), al-Nawawi, Ibn Qudama and al-Shawkani, among others, transmitted the consensus on this purity (Umdat al-Qari 11/144, al-Istidhkar 3/387, Hashiyat al-Jamal 1/235, al-Mughni 1/275-276, Nayl al-Awtar 1/355, al-Ijma' of Ibn al-Mundhir 23, al-Awsat 2/203-204, al-Majmu' 2/161). Imam Ibn al-Mundhir (may Allah have mercy on him) said: they agreed that the sweat of the person in major ritual impurity (junub) is pure, and likewise the menstruating woman (al-Ijma', 23); and: the generality of the people of knowledge agreed that the sweat of the junub is pure; this is established from Companions of the Messenger of Allah: Ibn Umar, Ibn Abbas and Aisha; Ata', Ibn Jubayr, al-Sha'bi and al-Hasan said it; Aisha and al-Hasan, among others, used to say: the sweat of the menstruating woman is likewise pure (al-Awsat 2/177).
Imam Ibn Qudama (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Ibn al-Mundhir reported that the generality of the people of knowledge agreed that the sweat of the junub is pure, established from Ibn Umar, Ibn Abbas, Aisha (may Allah be pleased with them) and other jurists; Aisha said: the sweat of the menstruating woman is pure; all of this is the saying of Malik, al-Shafi'i and the companions of opinion, and no difference from others is preserved from them.
Abu Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him) reports: the Messenger of Allah met him on one of the roads of Medina while he was junub; he slipped away, washed, then came. The Prophet said: Where were you, Abu Hurayra? He said: O Messenger of Allah, I was junub and disliked sitting with you without purity. He said:
Glory be to Allah, the believer does not become impure.Agreed upon (al-Bukhari and Muslim)
It is also reported that one of the Prophet's wives presented him a bowl to perform ablution from; a woman said: I dipped my hand in it while junub; he said: Water does not become impure by that. He said to Aisha: Hand me the cloth from the mosque; she said: I am menstruating; he said: Your menstruation is not in your hand. The Messenger of Allah would drink from Aisha's leftover while she menstruated, placing his mouth on the very spot; she would gnaw the bone while menstruating, then the Prophet would take it and place his mouth on the very spot of her mouth; and she would wash the head of the Messenger of Allah while she menstruated (al-Mughni 1/275-276).
The jurists agree that the prayer of the menstruating woman is not valid: hayd prevents its validity as it prevents its obligation. Ibn al-Mundhir (may Allah have mercy on him) reports: the people of knowledge agreed to drop the obligation of prayer from her during her days of hayd, per the saying of the Prophet to Fatima bint Abi Hubaysh:
When the menstruation comes, leave the prayer.Reported by al-Bukhari (306) and Muslim (333)
Al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) said: this is a prohibition upon her from praying during the time of hayd, a prohibiting prohibition, entailing the nullity of the prayer here by the consensus of the Muslims; both the obligatory and the supererogatory prayers are included, per the apparent meaning of the hadith. Likewise forbidden to her are the tawaf, the funeral prayer, the prostration of recitation and the prostration of gratitude: all of this is agreed upon.
Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali (may Allah have mercy on him) also reports the consensus of the scholars that the menstruating woman may not pray during her hayd, neither obligatorily nor supererogatorily (Fath al-Bari 1/449); the consensus was likewise transmitted by Ibn Abd al-Barr, Ibn Hubayra and others (al-Ifsah 1/13, al-Ijma' 23, Hashiyat Ibn Abidin 1/484, Fath al-Bari 1/502, al-Kafi 1/72, Kashshaf al-Qina' 1/197, Hashiyat al-Dusuqi 1/276, al-Awsat 2/202, al-Istidhkar 1/338). The Hanafis, the Shafi'is and the Hanbalis stated explicitly that the prostration of recitation and the prostration of gratitude rank with the prayer and are forbidden to the menstruating woman; Imam al-Nawawi even said: this is agreed upon (Sharh Sahih Muslim 4/20, al-Bahr al-Ra'iq 1/203-204, Hashiyat Ibn Abidin 1/484, al-Insaf 1/346).
The jurists also agree that making up what the menstruating woman missed during her days of hayd is not obligatory, per the hadith of Mu'adha:
I asked Aisha: what is the matter with the menstruating woman, that she makes up the fast but not the prayer? She said: are you a Haruriyya (Kharijite)? I said: I am not a Haruriyya, but I ask. She said: this used to befall us, and we were ordered to make up the fast, without being ordered to make up the prayer.Reported by al-Bukhari (321) and Muslim (335)
Al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) said: the scholars agreed that she is not charged with the prayer and that no make-up is due from her, and Allah knows best (Sharh Sahih Muslim 4/20-21). They differ, however, on the ruling of her making up the prayer if she wishes to perform it. The Hanafis: it is contrary to what is preferable; Ibn Nujaym said: is the make-up disliked for her? I have not seen it explicit, and it should be contrary to the preferable, as is clear; Ibn Abidin, citing al-Nahr, said: their saying points to it: if one washed his head instead of wiping over it, it would be disliked (al-Bahr al-Ra'iq 1/204, Hashiyat Ibn Abidin 1/485).
The Malikis: the make-up is not recommended for her, it is even disliked; al-Dusuqi said: she does not make up the prayer, neither obligatorily nor as a recommendation: if she was pure, she prayed it; if menstruating, she was not addressed by it (Hashiyat al-Dusuqi 1/271). Among the Shafi'is, al-Jamal said in his gloss: the make-up is disliked and constitutes a supererogatory prayer with no reward, for she is forbidden the prayer for the prayer's own sake, and what is forbidden for itself carries no reward; al-Baydawi declared it unlawful; in any case it does not stand if she performs it, for worship not demanded does not constitute; so held his shaykh, like al-Khatib and others; his shaykh al-Ramli differed: he held it valid and standing on the view of dislike, which is the relied one (Hashiyat al-Jamal 1/240).
Among the Hanbalis, Imam Ahmad was asked, in al-Athram's narration: if she wishes to make it up? He said: no, this is contrary to the Sunna. Ibn Muflih said in al-Furu': the apparent sense of the prohibition is forbiddance, and it is defensible that it be dislike, but an innovation; except perhaps the two rak'as of tawaf, which are a rite with no closing time (al-Insaf 1/346, al-Furu' 1/225, Sharh Muntaha al-Iradat 1/111, Matalib Uli al-Nuha 1/240).
Two cases arise: the woman either catches the beginning of the prayer time, being pure, then hayd supervenes, or she catches the end of the time, being menstruating, then becomes pure.
First case: the beginning of the time. The Hanafis say: if hayd supervenes during the time, that prayer falls, even if she had begun the obligatory prayer, for what counts with them is the end of the time; but if hayd supervenes while she is in supererogatory prayer, she must make up that prayer. Ibn al-Humam said: whenever hayd supervenes during the time, that prayer falls, even after beginning of the obligatory; unlike its supervening while she is in supererogation, where that prayer is due from her: this is our scholars' position (Sharh Fath al-Qadir 1/171, Hashiyat Ibn Abidin 1/485).
The Malikis distinguish: if hayd occurs in a time shared between two prayers, both fall; if in a time specific to one of them, the one specific to that time falls, and the other is made up. Thus the beginning of the midday decline is specific to dhuhr up to four rak'as in residence, or two in travel, then the two prayers share the time until asr becomes specific by four before sunset in residence, or two in travel. If the woman menstruates in the shared time, dhuhr and asr fall; if she menstruates in the time specific to asr, having prayed neither dhuhr nor asr, the make-up of asr alone falls and the make-up of dhuhr is due from her; if she menstruates in the time specific to dhuhr, it falls without make-up, and if the hayd continues into the shared time, asr falls; if it ceases before it, it is due; the same applies to maghrib and isha. The meaning is that Imam Malik holds that when the woman catches the beginning of the time pure then menstruates, the make-up falls from her, like Abu Hanifa (al-Qawanin al-Fiqhiyya 1/35, Bidayat al-Mujtahid 1/138 and 146; Malik indeed holds that the end of dhuhr's time and the beginning of asr's form a time shared by the two prayers, to the extent of four rak'as, per the Jibril hadith, in which he prayed asr with the Prophet on the second day at the time he had prayed dhuhr with him).
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya (may Allah have mercy on him) said: the more apparent in the evidence is the position of Abu Hanifa and Malik: nothing is due from her, for make-up is only obligatory by a new command, and no command here binds her to make up; she delayed a permissible delay, so she is not negligent; as for the sleeper or the forgetter, also not negligent, what he does is not a make-up: it is the prayer's time for him when he wakes or remembers, as the Prophet said: Whoever sleeps through a prayer or forgets it, let him pray it when he remembers: that is its time. Not a single hadith from the Prophet exists about making up the prayer after its time; the Sunna came with repeating within the time for whoever omitted an obligation among the obligations of the prayer: his order to the one who prayed badly to repeat it when he omitted the required composure, his order to the one who prayed alone behind the row to repeat when he omitted the required alignment, his order to the one a spot of whose foot escaped the water to repeat when he omitted the commanded ablution, and his order to the sleeper and the forgetful to pray when they remember, which is the time for them; and Allah knows best (Majmu' al-Fatawa 23/335).
The Shafi'is say: if hayd supervenes at the beginning of the time, only that prayer is due, if she caught the extent of the obligatory; the second prayer joined with it afterwards is not due. The obligatory prayer before it is also due if it is joined with it, she having caught its extent without praying it, being able to do it. If she did not catch the extent of the obligatory, nothing is due in her liability, for lack of capacity, like the nisab perishing before the ability to discharge it. The second prayer is not due to her who did not reach it free of impediments, because the first's time is not valid for the second, unless both are prayed joined, unlike the reverse; likewise the first's time, in joining, is a time for the second by way of followership, unlike the reverse, as shown by the non-obligation of advancing the second in early joining, and the permissibility, indeed the obligation in one consideration, of advancing the first in late joining; and the obligation attaches to the extent of a single takbir because it is a catching, in which little and much are equal, like the traveler catching the residents' prayer (al-Majmu' 3/72, Mughni al-Muhtaj 1/132-133, Nihayat al-Muhtaj 1/397-398, Hawashi al-Sharwani 1/457).
The Hanbalis hold that if the woman catches from the beginning of the time the extent of a takbirat al-ihram, then hayd (or nifas) supervenes, she must make up that prayer: prayer becomes obligatory with the entry of the beginning of the time upon any liable person without impediment, a settled obligation; if an impediment then arises, it does not drop it, and the make-up is due upon its removal. Not due from her is the make-up of the prayer following it, even joined to it, for she caught no part of its time (al-Mughni 1/468, Kashshaf al-Qina' 1/259, Matalib Uli al-Nuha 1/320, Majmu' al-Fatawa 23/335).
Second case: the end of the time. The jurists agree that if the menstruating woman becomes pure during the time of a prayer, that prayer is due from her; they differ on the prayer before it: must she pray it? The three Imams, Malik, al-Shafi'i and Ahmad, say the prayer at whose time she became pure is due from her, and the one before it, per the detail below; Imam Abu Hanifa says only the prayer at whose time she became pure is due from her alone (al-Awsat 2/243-247, al-Mughni 1/499, Bidayat al-Mujtahid 1/146, Nayl al-Awtar 1/355, Majmu' al-Fatawa 23/334).
On the sufficient extent of time, the Hanafis distinguish: if the woman menstruates ten days, their maximum of hayd, and becomes pure at the end of the time, the obligatory is due from her even if only the extent of entering the sacralization remains; but if her days are under ten, the prayer is due only if, upon her purity, there remains of the time the extent of the major ablution and of catching the opening takbir; otherwise that prayer is not due from her, nor its make-up. The difference is that when her days are under ten, she is not judged out of hayd by the mere cessation of blood until she washes or a full prayer time passes over her, and that prayer becomes a debt upon her; if her days are ten, the mere cessation judges her out of hayd, so if she catches a part of the time, the make-up of that prayer binds her, whether she was able to wash or not, like the disbeliever who embraces Islam while junub, or the boy who attains puberty by wet dream at the end of the time (Bada'i' al-Sana'i' 1/320, Hashiyat Ibn Abidin 1/493, Mukhtasar Ikhtilaf al-Ulama 1/262).
The Malikis say: if the woman becomes pure with a rak'a remaining and the time is before sunrise, only the fajr prayer is due from her, and the prayers missed during the hayd fall; likewise if the time is before sunset and a rak'a, or two, three or four but no more, remains: asr is due and dhuhr falls; likewise before dawn: if a rak'a, two or three but no more remains, isha is due and maghrib falls; the rule is that when the time narrows it becomes specific to the later prayer. Dhuhr with asr, and maghrib with isha, are called the two shared prayers, for their common time. But if after her purity there remains what suffices for five rak'as before sunset or more, dhuhr and asr are due: dhuhr is caught by four and one rak'a remains for asr; and if four or more before dawn, maghrib and isha are due: maghrib is caught by three and one rak'a remains for isha (Hashiyat al-Dusuqi 1/290 and 292, Bidayat al-Mujtahid 1/146, al-Thamar al-Dani 1/197, al-Fawakih al-Dawani 1/256, Sharh Mukhtasar Khalil 1/238, al-Tamhid 3/283 and 285).
The Shafi'is and the Hanbalis hold that if the woman becomes pure catching from the end of the time the extent of a takbir, she must make up that prayer alone, if it is not joined with the one before it, and its make-up together with that of the one before it if they are joined. Becoming pure before sunrise with a takbir remaining, she makes up only the fajr, for the prayer before it, isha, is not joined to it; becoming pure before sunset by the extent of a takbir, dhuhr and asr are due from her; likewise, becoming pure before dawn by the extent of a takbir, the make-up of maghrib and isha is due from her, per what al-Athram, Ibn al-Mundhir and others reported from Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf and Ibn Abbas: the woman who becomes pure before dawn by a rak'a prays maghrib and isha; and she who becomes pure before sunset prays dhuhr and asr together; for the second's time is a time for the first in case of excuse, all the more in necessity; and the obligation attaches to the extent of a takbir because it is a catching, in which little and much are equal, like the traveler catching the residents' prayer (Mughni al-Muhtaj 1/132, Nihayat al-Muhtaj 1/396, al-Mughni 1/498 and 496, Kashshaf al-Qina' 1/259-260, Matalib Uli al-Nuha 1/320, Masa'il al-Imam Ahmad 1/360, al-Awsat 2/243-244, Majmu' al-Fatawa 21/434).
The jurists agree that fasting is forbidden to the menstruating woman absolutely, whether obligatory or supererogatory, and that it is not valid from her, per the saying of the Prophet:
Is it not that, when she menstruates, she does not pray and does not fast?Reported by al-Bukhari (304)
As soon as the woman sees blood for an hour of the day, her fast is voided; al-Nawawi, Ibn Jarir, Ibn Qudama, Ibn Hubayra and others transmitted the consensus. Ibn Battal comments: his saying, is it not that when she menstruates she does not pray and does not fast, is a text that the obligation of prayer falls from the menstruating woman and that fasting is not permitted her during her days of hayd; the Umma is entirely upon that; they agreed that she makes up the fasting she left, without making up the prayer, except a faction of the Khawarij who require the making up of the prayer: the scholars of the Umma, early and late, are against them (Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari 1/419).
Imam Ibn Qudama (may Allah have mercy on him) said: the people of knowledge agreed that the menstruating woman and the woman in childbirth may not fast, that they break Ramadan and make it up, and that if they fasted, the fast does not acquit them. Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) said: We menstruated in the era of the Messenger of Allah, and we were ordered to make up the fast, without being ordered to make up the prayer (agreed upon); and the order came from the Prophet himself. Abu Sa'id reports: the Prophet said: Is it not that one of you, when she menstruates, does not pray and does not fast? That is of the deficiency of her religion (reported by al-Bukhari).
We menstruated in the era of the Messenger of Allah, and we were ordered to make up the fast, without being ordered to make up the prayer.Agreed upon (al-Bukhari and Muslim)
Is it not that one of you, when she menstruates, does not pray and does not fast? That is of the deficiency of her religion.Reported by al-Bukhari
The menstruating woman and the woman in childbirth are alike: nifas blood is hayd blood and follows its rule. Whenever hayd exists in a part of the day, the fast of that day is voided, at its beginning or its end; and if the menstruating woman intends the fast and abstains while knowing its prohibition, she completes it but it does not acquit her (al-Mughni 3/38-39).
Al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) said: the Umma agreed on the forbiddance of fasting for the menstruating woman and the woman in childbirth, and on the invalidity of their fast, as we have presented; this is reported from Ibn Jarir, and others likewise transmitted the consensus (al-Majmu' 2/357). Imam al-Haramayn notes: that the fast is not valid from her is not grasped by reasoning, for purity is not a condition in it (al-Majmu' 2/357). Imam Ibn Rajab (may Allah have mercy on him) said: the Umma agreed that the menstruating woman does not fast during her days of hayd, that her fast is neither valid nor counted, and that she must make up the fast once pure (Fath al-Bari of Ibn Rajab 1/421).
They also agree on the obligation upon her of making up Ramadan, per the saying of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her): This used to befall us, and we were ordered to make up the fast, without being ordered to make up the prayer (reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim, 335). Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Jarir, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nawawi and Ibn Hubayra, among others, transmitted this consensus. Imam al-Qurtubi (may Allah have mercy on him) said: the scholars agreed that the menstruating woman makes up the fast and not the prayer, per the hadith of Mu'adha (Tafsir al-Qurtubi 3/83); al-Nawawi said: the Umma also agreed on the obligation of making up the fast of Ramadan upon her; al-Tirmidhi, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Jarir, our companions and others transmitted the consensus in it (al-Majmu' 2/357).
They agree finally that hayd does not break the consecutiveness in the fast of expiations: it contradicts fasting, and the woman of courses can hardly be free of it in the month, while deferring to the age of menopause carries peril; the Hanafis excepted, however, the expiation of the oath and its like. Imam Ibn al-Mundhir (may Allah have mercy on him) reports: they agreed that the woman upon whom two consecutive months of fasting are due, who fasted part then menstruated, resumes her count once pure (al-Ijma' 128; see also Hashiyat Ibn Abidin 1/485, Majmu' al-Rasa'il 1/111, Hashiyat al-Dusuqi 1/276, al-Majmu' 2/357, Sharh Sahih Muslim 4/24, al-Mughni 4/205, al-Ifsah 1/103, Mughni al-Muhtaj 3/109 and 365, Kashshaf al-Qina' 5/384, Matalib Uli al-Nuha 1/240).