Chapter on Menstruation

• The minimum length of a menstrual period is three days together with their nights.

• Any discharge that falls short of this is not menstruation but irregular bleeding (istihada).

• The maximum length of menstruation is ten days together with their nights; whatever exceeds that is istihada.

• Any red, yellow, or brownish discharge a woman sees during her menstrual days counts as menstruation until she observes clear white discharge.

• Menstruation lifts from the woman the obligation of prayer, forbids her to fast—she must later make up the fasts but not the prayers—bars her from entering the mosque, circumambulating the Kaʿbah, and from sexual intercourse with her husband.

• Neither a menstruating woman nor a person in a state of major ritual impurity (janaba) may recite the Qur’an.

• A person without wuduʾ may not touch the mushaf unless he holds it in a cover.

• If the menstrual blood stops in fewer than ten days, intercourse is not permitted until she has performed the ritual bath or an entire prayer time has elapsed. If her bleeding ceases exactly at ten days, intercourse is allowed even before she bathes.

• When a spell of purity occurs between two flows within the menstrual span, it is treated as continuous bleeding.

• The minimum interval of purity is fifteen days, and there is no upper limit.

• Istihada is the blood a woman sees for less than three days or for more than ten; its ruling is that of constant nose-bleeding—it does not block fasting, prayer, or sexual relations.

• If the bleeding exceeds ten days and the woman has a customary duration