His statement, “Intercourse with her before forty days have elapsed, after she has performed purification, is disliked,” means that intercourse with a woman in postnatal bleeding is disliked if she becomes pure before forty days have elapsed.
They cited the following as evidence for this:
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When the wife of Uthman ibn Abi al-As (may Allah be pleased with him) became pure before forty days had elapsed and came to him, he said, “Do not come near me.” (1) He was one of the Companions, and his words, “Do not come near me,” constitute a prohibition, the least implication of which is that it is disliked.
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There is the fear that the bleeding may return, since this period is still considered a period of postnatal bleeding.
Thus, they moved the ruling on intercourse from its original ruling—prohibition while the bleeding is present—to dislike once it ceases, because the cause of prohibition, namely the bleeding, has ceased. But why should it not move from prohibition to permissibility? For intercourse with a woman in postnatal bleeding is either lawful or unlawful, and deeming it disliked requires evidence—and there is no evidence.
The stronger view, then, is that intercourse with her is permissible before forty days have elapsed if she has become pure.
The statement of Uthman ibn Abi al-As (may Allah be pleased with him) may be answered as follows:
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Its chain is weak.
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He may have abstained from it as a matter of personal scrupulousness, without regarding it as disliked; thus, it does not indicate that it is disliked.