and she stops performing the prayer from the moment she sees the first drop of blood until fifteen full days have elapsed. If the bleeding has not ceased by then, she resumes prayer and is deemed to be experiencing istihādah. Al-Shāfiʿī held the same view.
Mālik, however, said that she should begin praying as soon as she is certain the state is istihādah. According to al-Shāfiʿī she must also make up the prayers missed during the preceding days, except for the minimum length of menstruation as he defines it—one complete day and night.
A second report from Mālik states that she should reckon as menstruation the number of days typical for her age-mates, then add three days as a precaution; if the blood still continues, she is treated as a woman in istihādah.
As for the woman who already has an established habit (muʿtādah), two narrations are reported from Mālik:
- She follows her customary number of days and may add up to three more, provided she does not exceed the maximum duration of menstruation.
- She refrains from prayer until the longest recognized length of menstruation has passed, or she relies on distinguishing the characteristics of the blood if she is capable of doing so.
Al-Shāfiʿī maintained simply that she follows the days of her habit.
All these divergent opinions regarding the minimum and maximum lengths of menstruation and the minimum span of purity rest on nothing more than empirical observation and customary practice. Each jurist asserted what he thought experience had shown him, yet the great variation found among women makes it difficult to establish fixed limits for most cases; hence the disagreement just mentioned.
Nevertheless, the jurists are unanimously agreed that whenever bleeding persists beyond the maximum length of menstruation it is classified as istihādah, in accordance with the saying of the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—to Fāṭimah bint Abī Ḥubaysh:
“When the menstrual period begins, leave off the prayer; and when its usual time has passed, wash the blood from yourself and pray.”
A woman whose bleeding exceeds the longest accepted span of menstruation has, by definition, passed beyond its allotted term.
Al-Shāfiʿī and Mālik—may Allah have mercy on them—therefore held, in one of the two reports from each of them, that a woman with an established habit bases herself on that habit, drawing on the ḥadīth of Umm Salamah recorded in the Muwaṭṭaʾ:
“During the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—a woman suffered continuous bleeding. Umm Salamah sought a ruling for her from the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—who said: ‘Let her consider how many nights and days of the month she used to menstruate before this condition afflicted her; she should refrain from prayer for that number of days each month. Once those days have passed, she must bathe, bind herself with a cloth, and then perform the prayer.’”
Thus they applied the ruling for a menstruating woman who is uncertain whether her bleeding is istihādah to that of a woman in istihādah who is unsure whether what she sees is menstruation. Mālik likewise held that a beginner should look to the number of days her peers bleed, for their days resemble her own, and so the two cases share the same ruling.
As for the three-day precautionary delay (istizhār) advocated by Mālik, it is a position unique to him and his companions—may Allah have mercy on them—and one that all the jurists of the major centers, save al-Awzāʿī, opposed. No sound ḥadīth mentions it, and the report cited in its support is weak.