- His conduct may have been a matter of precaution: he may have feared that what she perceived as purity was not truly purity, or that bleeding might occur as a result of intercourse, or for some other reason.
“If the bleeding returns, then its status is uncertain; she fasts, prays, and makes up what is obligatory, …”
His statement, “If the bleeding returns,” means that the bleeding returns to the woman in postnatal bleeding after having ceased.
His statement, “then its status is uncertain,” means: We do not know whether it is postnatal bleeding or irregular bleeding.
If it is postnatal bleeding, the rulings of postnatal bleeding apply to it; but if it is irregular bleeding, the rulings of postnatal bleeding do not apply.
His statement, “she fasts and prays,” means that she must purify herself and perform the prayer and fast, if this occurs during Ramadan. However, she must avoid what is forbidden for a woman in postnatal bleeding, such as intercourse, and must not do it. This is because, as a precaution, we command her to perform what she is commanded to perform, such as prayer and fasting, while, as a precaution, we prevent her from what is forbidden.
His statement, “and makes up what is obligatory,” means fasting and prayer, if they are matters that must be made up.
An example of this is a woman whose day of purity was the tenth day of Ramadan, after she had spent twenty days in postnatal bleeding. That is, she gave birth ten days before Ramadan, became pure on the tenth of Ramadan, and remained pure until the twentieth of Ramadan. Then the bleeding returned during the last ten days of Ramadan. She must therefore pray and fast as a precaution, because it is possible that it is not postnatal bleeding.