nine years of age. If she menstruates before completing nine years, it is not menstruation, even if the bleeding resembles normal menstruation and has the recognized characteristics of menstrual blood. It is not menstruation; rather, it is blood from a vein, and the rulings of menstruation do not apply to it.

His statement, “before nine years of age,” means before the completion of nine years. Thus, if a girl who is nine years old menstruates, it is not menstruation; menstruation begins after nine years.

It is reported from al-Shafi‘i, may Allah have mercy on him, that he saw a grandmother who was twenty-one years old. (1)

This is conceivable if a girl menstruates at nine, gives birth at ten, and her daughter menstruates at nine and gives birth at ten. That makes twenty years, plus one year for the pregnancy; thus, she gives birth to a child and is twenty-one years old.

…Nor After Fifty Years of Age

His statement, “nor after fifty,” means that there is no menstruation after the completion of fifty years. Thus, even if a woman’s menstruation continues after she has completed fifty years, with the same regularity and character, it is not menstruation.

For example, a woman completes fifty years of age in the month of Rabi‘ al-Awwal, and in Rabi‘ al-Thani her menstrual period comes at its usual time. According to the author’s view, it is not menstruation, because there is no menstruation after fifty.

In their view, there is no distinction between a non-Arab woman and an Arab woman, a healthy woman and an ill woman, or between a woman whose menstruation began late and one whose menstruation began early.