Bookmarks
Arabic font settings
English font settings
Reset global font settings
Fiqh-us-Sunnah - 1.70
Hadith 1.70.1
There is no stated minimum or maximum length of time for the menses
All statements dealing with this topic have no sound backing. If a woman has a customary length of time for her menses, she should according to it. Umm Salamah asked the Prophet about a woman with a prolonged flow of blood.
He said, "She should look for the number of days and nights that she usually has her menses and the time of the month during which it occurs. Then she should leave the prayer (during those days, and then afterwards) perform ghusl, tie something around her vagina and pray."
(Related by "the five,'' except for at-Tirmidhi.) If she has no customary period to go by, then she can try to distinguish between the different types of blood. This practice is based on the previously quoted hadith of Fatimah bint Abu Hubaish, which states that menstrual blood is distinguishable and well-known to women.
All scholars agree that there is no minmum or maximum time limit between two menstrual periods. Some say that the latter period is fifteen days, while others say it is three days.
Hadith 1.70.A
Post-Childbirth Bleeding
Such bleeding occurs after the birth of a child, regardless if the child survived the birth or not. This type of bleeding has no minimum duration, for it could stop right after the birth, or there could even be no blood. Therefore, her confinement would end and she would be obliged to fast, pray, and so on. The maximum duration is forty days. Said Umm Salamah, "During the lifetime of the Prophet, the post-childbirth woman would be in confinement for forty days." (Related by "the five," except for an-Nasa'i.) After recording the hadith, at-Tirmidhi states, "The knowledgeable companions, the following generation and those that came later agree that a woman experiencing post-childbirth bleeding had to stop praying for forty days unless her blood stopped. If her bleeding stops before that time, she is to make ghusl and start praying.
If she sees blood after forty days, most scholars say that she is not to stop praying."
Qur'anic references:
Help us to build Quranic citations related to this hadith. Get connected with our Contact Us option.
Support Our Initiatives
"When a person dies, his works end, except for three: ongoing charity, knowledge that is benefited from, and a righteous child who prays for him."
Prophet Mohammed (PBUH)
"The best of what a man leaves behind are three: a righteous child who supplicates for him, ongoing charity the reward of which reaches him, and knowledge that is acted upon after him."
Sunan Ibn Mājah
"Every day two angels come down from Heaven and one of them says, 'O Allah! Compensate every person who spends in Your Cause,' and the other (angel) says, 'O Allah! Destroy every miser.'"
Sahih Bukhari
