Then, if she becomes pure at the completion of forty days—on the day of Eid—she must perform ghusl and make up the fasts she observed while this bleeding was present, because it may have been postnatal bleeding, and fasting is not valid in the presence of postnatal bleeding.

As for the days during which she fasted while she was pure—namely, from the tenth to the twentieth of Ramadan—she does not make them up, because she fasted them while pure and without any bleeding.

With regard to the prayer, she is not required to make up the prayers she performed after the bleeding returned. If it was irregular bleeding, then she prayed and her liability has been discharged; and if it was postnatal bleeding, prayer is not obligatory upon a woman in postnatal bleeding.

Thus, the ruling concerning bleeding whose nature is uncertain is that a woman must perform what is obligatory upon women in a state of purity, due to the possibility that it is irregular bleeding; and she must make up whatever a woman in postnatal bleeding is required to make up, due to the possibility that it is postnatal bleeding. This is what the author stated, and it is the position of the school.

The stronger view is that, if the returning blood is postnatal blood in its colour, odour, and all its characteristics, then it is not uncertain; rather, it is known blood: postnatal bleeding. She therefore neither fasts nor prays, and she makes up the fasts but not the prayers. If, however, she knows from the indications that it is not postnatal bleeding, then she is regarded as being in a state of purity: she fasts and prays, and is not required to make anything up, for Allah has not made worship obligatory upon His servants twice. Either she is qualified to fast, in which case she fasts, or she is not. But if the returning bleeding coincides with the time of her menstrual habit, then it is menstruation.

It is like menstruation with respect to what is permitted, prohibited, obligatory, and waived, except for the waiting period and puberty, ............

His statement, “It is like menstruation with respect to what is permitted,” means that the ruling of postnatal bleeding