Islamic Fiqh > Purification (Tahara) > Menstruation (hayd), lochia and irregular bleeding > The durations and colors of the hayd
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Updated on 27 September 2026 at 3:52 AM
The durations of the hayd (menstruation) and of the tahur (the purity interval) stand at the center of fiqh: they decide when a woman prays, fasts and lives her marital life. The schools agree on the method, holding to observation and custom, and differ on the numbered limits.
This page gathers the limits of menstrual blood, the colors that count, the status of interrupted bleeding, and the status of blood outside the periods, called istihada, with the view of each of the four schools.
The Hanafites set the minimum of menstruation at three days and nights (seventy-two hours) and the maximum at ten days and nights. Anything below or above this range is blood of sickness, called istihada.
Two hadiths are cited for this range of three to ten days. From Wathila ibn al-Asqa': "The shortest menstruation lasts three days and the longest ten days." It is narrated by al-Daraqutni (847), but its chain contains an unknown narrator and a weak one.
From Abu Umama: "The minimum is three and the maximum is ten," narrated by al-Tabarani in al-Kabir (8/129) with a weak chain. The report of Anas enumerating "three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten" passes through al-Hasan ibn Dinar, whom the scholars accused of lying; Ibn al-Jawzi declares it not authentic from the Prophet. Al-Nawawi confirms that the three texts are weak by the agreement of the hadith specialists, weakened successively by al-Daraqutni then al-Bayhaqi.
The Prophet said to Hamna bint Jahsh, who consulted him about her blood: menstruate six or seven days, by the knowledge of Allah, then wash; when you see that you are purified and clean, pray twenty-three nights or twenty-four nights and their days, and fast, for that suffices you; do so every month, as the women menstruate and purify themselves at their times of menses and purity.
narrated by Abu Dawud (287), al-Tirmidhi (128) and Ibn Majah (510), graded hasan sahih; al-Tirmidhi reports that Muhammad, meaning al-Bukhari, declared it hasan sahih, as did Ahmad ibn Hanbal
Ibn Abidin reports that the Hanafi minimum goes back to six companions through chains that rise to the hasan grade. Ibn al-Humam adds that the legislative measures are not known by opinion: the transmitted reports, even weak, serve as their basis. The usual custom, for its part, is six or seven days, according to the hadith of Hamna.
There is no maximum for the purity: a woman may not menstruate at all, or only once a year. Abu al-Tayyib, of the Shafiites, reports a woman's testimony about her sister: she menstruates one day and one night every year, healthy, conceiving and giving birth, with postnatal bleeding of forty days (al-Majmu', 3/406).
For the minimum purity between two periods, Hanafites, Malikites in the famous view, Shafiites and Ahmad in one narration hold fifteen days. The reason: the month generally contains menses and purity, and if the maximum of menses is fifteen days, the minimum of purity is so too; the Hanafites support it with the consensus of the companions (Ibn Abidin 1/477, Bada'i' al-Sana'i' 1/156, al-Dasuqi 1/270, al-Istidhkar 1/348).
Ibn Abd al-Barr reports other narrations from Malik: Ibn al-Qasim says ten days, Suhnun eight, Ibn al-Majishun five (a view favored by some Baghdadians), and Muhammad ibn Maslama fifteen, the choice of most Baghdadians and the view of al-Shafi'i, Abu Hanifa and al-Thawri. Muhammad ibn Maslama argues that Allah made the waiting period of the woman who no longer menstruates three months and that of the woman with spaced periods three periods: each period stands for a month, and the month joins purity and menses; if the maximum of menses is fifteen days, purity must be fifteen days to complete the month (al-Istidhkar, 1/348).
This limit has a practical use among the Malikites: if a beginner's blood stops below fifteen days and returns before a full purity, the return is attached to the first blood, as blood of sickness; if it returns after the full purity, it is renewed menses, counted in the waiting period and subject to all its rulings (al-Dardir, al-Dasuqi 1/204).
The Hanbalites give thirteen days. Their proof is the athar of Ali ibn Abi Talib about the divorced woman who claimed to menstruate three times within one month.
A woman came to Ali, divorced by her husband, claiming to have menstruated three times in the month, purified herself at each interval and prayed. Ali said to Shurayh: question her. Shurayh said: if she brings witnesses of her family, people reliable in religion and trust, attesting that she menstruated three times in the month, purified herself each time and prayed, she is truthful; otherwise she lied. Ali said: they have spoken well, and he tied thirty with his hand, a Roman expression meaning: well done.
narrated by al-Bukhari in mu'allaq form (1/505), al-Darimi (855), Sa'id ibn Mansur (1309), Ibn Abi Shayba (4/200) and al-Bayhaqi in Ma'rifat as-Sunan wal-Athar (12/381); al-Hafiz writes in Fath al-Bari that its narrators are reliable
The Hanbalites add that such a statement can only come through transmission from the Prophet, and that three menses in one month prove that a purity of thirteen days is certainly a true tahur. Ahmad says: there is no disagreement, the waiting ends within the month once the proof is established. The usual purity, for its part, is twenty-four or twenty-two nights according to Shafiites and Hanbalites, from the hadith of Hamna, and twenty-five nights according to the Hanafites.
There is no disagreement: a purity of fifteen consecutive days or more separates two periods. Below that length, the schools differ on bleeding interrupted by short stops.
The Hanafites agree that an interruption of less than three days never separates. Beyond that, six narrations go back to the imam, three of them famous (Ibn Abidin 1/483-484, Bada'i' al-Sana'i' 1/165-167, Fath al-Qadir 1/120-121, al-Bahr al-Ra'iq 1/216-217):
The Malikites practice grouping: the woman joins the days of blood alone, ignoring the days of interruption, as long as no interruption reaches fifteen consecutive days of pure, bloodless purity. The maximum is fifteen days for the beginner, custom plus waiting for the habituated woman, about fifteen days for the pregnant woman in her third month and about twenty from the sixth month on; after that she moves to istihada. The grouped woman washes at every stop of the blood, unless she fears an imminent return; she fasts, prays, intimacy is permitted to her and she performs the tawaf al-ifada; but divorce during this blood counted as menses is forbidden and the husband must take her back (al-Dardir, al-Dasuqi 1/170-173, Mawahib al-Jalil 1/169).
The Shafiites distinguish two cases when blood alternates with purity without exceeding fifteen days. According to the view of grouping, the days of blood are menses and the days of purity are a true tahur: fasting, prayer, tawaf, recitation, ghusl, i'tikaf and intimacy are valid during the purity, but a divorce issued in that tahur is of the innovation. According to the view of sweeping, the whole stretch is menses as long as the purity is framed by blood within the fifteen days, and the acts of worship performed in between must be repeated; this last view is declared the more correct among them (al-Nawawi, Rawdat at-Talibin 1/329-332, al-Majmu' 3/519-526).
Al-Nawawi adds: if she sees only one day of purity, she acts like the pure women without disagreement, because it is not yet known that she belongs to the grouping type; she washes, fasts, prays, recites the Quran, touches the mushaf, performs tawaf and i'tikaf, and intimacy is permitted. If the blood returns on the third day, it is known that she is of the grouping type: the chosen view then decides what remains valid and what must be repeated.
The Hanbalites judge that any purity, even of an hour, is a real tahur: she washes and resumes prayer and fasting, without distinguishing long or short purity, according to the hadith of Ibn Abbas:
If you see an hour of purity, wash yourself.
narrated by Ibn Abi Shayba in al-Musannaf (1367), al-Darimi (800) and Abu Dawud (286), authenticated by al-Albani in Sahih Abi Dawud (264)
Ibn Qudama refines: a break shorter than a day is not a tahur, following the rule adopted for lochia, because the blood flows then recedes, and washing at every hour would be a hardship; the hardship is removed by the word of Allah:
He has imposed no hardship upon you in the religion.
Surah al-Hajj, 78
And because treating every stop as purity would make menses impossible to fix. If the blood exceeds fifteen days, she is in istihada: this running blood is that of a vein, not of menses. If she sees three days of blood, then twelve days of purity, then three days of blood, the first blood is menses and the second istihada, for no single menses can exceed fifteen days in total; but if thirteen days or more of tahur repeat between the two bleedings, they are two distinct periods. The Hanbalites add, in Matalib Uli an-Nuha, that purity within one stretch of menses is real: she washes, prays, fasts, performs tawaf, recites, and intimacy is not disliked.
The majority of jurists count yellow and brown as menses when they appear during the days of menses, for what appears in the time of menses follows their ruling. The proof is the practice of Aisha:
The women sent to Aisha the pouch containing cotton, with yellow and brown in it, and she said to them: do not hasten until you see the long white streak, that is, the end of the menses.
narrated by Malik in al-Muwatta (128), al-Bayhaqi in as-Sunan al-Kubra (1486), Abd al-Razzaq in al-Musannaf (1159) and al-Bukhari in mu'allaq form (1/121), a sahih hadith; the durja is the cotton by which the woman checks the end of her menses, according to Ibn Hajar in Fath al-Bari (1/500)
Al-Ramli clarifies that yellow and brown are not colors of blood but resemble pus, and Ibn Hajar al-Haytami states they are two liquids, not two kinds of blood.
A strand among Shafiites and Hanbalites rejects them as menses: they are not the color of blood, and Umm Atiyya said: "We did not count the yellow and the brown as anything." In al-Bukhari (320) the phrase stands alone; in Abu Dawud (307), graded sahih, it ends with "after the tahur". Ibn al-Majishun, of the Malikites, said: if they appear during the days of menses, they are menses, otherwise not; al-Dasuqi reports that al-Mazari and al-Abi made this view the madhhab, while another opinion rejects them absolutely.
Outside the days of menses, Hanafites, Hanbalites, one Malikite view and Shafiites judge that yellow and brown are not menses, according to Umm Atiyya's wording: "after the tahur". But Malikites and Shafiites in the famous view count them as menses if the habituated woman sees them after her custom; she then keeps her days among the Shafiites. Al-Nawawi sums up: the correct and famous position is that yellow and brown, within the possible time, that is the fifteen days, are menses, whether the woman is a beginner or habituated, matching her custom or not, as if it were black or red (al-Majmu', 3/416). The Malikites add a waiting of three days before deciding.
Ibn Abd al-Barr notes the internal divergence: in the Mudawwana of Ibn al-Qasim, Malik judges yellow and brown to be menses during the days of menses as well as outside them, even without blood with them; in the Majmu'a of Ali ibn Ziyad, he judges that what appears during the days of menses or purification is like the blood, and what comes after is istihada; this is a correct view, but the first is more famous (al-Istidhkar, 1/324-325).
Abu al-Ma'ali al-Juwayni says the rulings of istihada rank among the most obscure questions the scholars have treated (Ghiyath al-Umam, p. 519). Istihada is blood seen outside the times of menses and lochia after the age of menses, or blood that continues after the end of menses, with grouping or without. Its blood is red and thin, unlike the blood of menses and lochia which is turbid and thick. All scholars agree that it breaks the purity (Ibn al-Mundhir, al-Ijma', 3).
The Prophet's method: protect, wash, then renew wudu for every prayer. He said to Hamna, who complained of the abundance of blood: I have indicated to you the kursuf, the cotton, it holds back the blood (Abu Dawud 287, al-Tirmidhi 128, Ibn Majah 622, hasan). To Umm Salama he said: wrap a garment around your body; and to Hamna: tie it tightly, when she said the blood exceeds the cotton.
A wife of the Messenger of Allah performed i'tikaf with him, and she saw blood, yellow and dirt beneath her, while praying.
narrated by al-Bukhari (304)
A hadith recommends: "Pray, even if the blood drips onto the mat"; it is narrated by Ibn Majah (624) and Ahmad, but it is weak. The case of women whose blood cannot be held is assimilated to urinary incontinence, abundant madhiy and the wound that does not close: washing the place, protection by cotton, tight binding, then wudu for every prayer. Umar, after being stabbed, prayed while his wound bled; and Aisha reports that a woman in i'tikaf prayed despite the blood.
On the obligation of wudu for each prayer, al-Shafi'i, Abu Thawr and the jurists of opinion make it obligatory at every prayer time; Malik does not require it, according to a narration reported also from Ikrima and Rabi'a; Malik recommends it for incontinence, unless the cold harms. The proof of renewal per prayer is the hadith of Fatima bint Abi Hubaysh:
Wash yourself, then perform wudu for every prayer and pray.
narrated by Abu Dawud (298) and al-Tirmidhi (125), graded hasan sahih
And an athar reported by Adi ibn Thabit, from his father and his grandfather: "She leaves the prayer during the days of her intervals, then she washes, fasts, prays and performs wudu at every prayer" (Abu Dawud 297, al-Tirmidhi 126, sahih). The purity of the woman with an excuse is therefore tied to the time, like tayammum: if she performs wudu before the time enters and something exits, her purity falls with the end of the time; if she performs it after the time has entered, it is valid as long as nothing exits and the time does not end. Delaying the prayer for a benefit tied to it is permitted; a delay without cause divides the views.
She may combine two prayers with a single purification: the Prophet ordered Hamna to combine the two prayers with one ghusl, and ordered the same to Sahla bint Suhayl; other cases of excuse are assimilated to them by analogy (al-Mughni, 1/438-441).
In practice, the woman relies on her established custom: blood within the window of her menses follows their ruling, and blood beyond it becomes istihada with wudu for each prayer. Facing interrupted bleeding, the Hanbalite path, where any purity however brief triggers washing and prayer, is the simplest to follow; irregular durations and mixed cases call for the ruling of a competent scholar, school by school.