Discover the meaning of the term Alhyad (حياض) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 2 min readAl-hiyad: the blood of menstruation. Al-hayd: the flow of blood from the menstruating woman; the blood that flows from the woman's womb on determined days each month. In legal terms: the blood expelled by the womb of a pubescent woman, free from disease and past the age of the little girl (al-Jurjani). In legal terms: the blood of nature (jiblah) that issues from the depths of the woman's womb at appointed times (al-Ansari). As a category of legal impurities: a legal bar to the states for which purity is required, on account of the blood mentioned (al-Haskafi). In terminology: the blood that bears on the completion of the waiting period ('iddah) and whose minimum has a threshold; it is usually black, thick, warm, and issues with a burning sensation (al-Najafi). Al-haydah: the time; each single gush among the gushes of menstrual blood; among the jurists: the name of the habitual days (al-Matrizi). Al-hidah: the cloth the woman uses to receive the menstrual blood (plural: hiyad); the blood itself. In the noble hadith: 'Your menstruation is not in your hand.' Al-mahid: menstruation. In the Noble Quran: 'They ask you about menstruation. Say: it is a harmful state. So keep away from women during menstruation and do not approach them until they are pure' (Al-Baqarah, 222); the time of menstruation; the place of menstruation, that is, the vulva itself. Al-Nawawi said of the last two meanings: they are two errors, for Allah, the Most High, said 'it is a harmful state', and neither the vulva nor the time can be so described. In the hadith of Umm Salamah: 'I asked the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) about the washing of the mahid,' that is, of the blood.