Those who stipulate only a single full bath for the woman with continuous bleeding are Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, Abū Ḥanīfah, their respective disciples, and the bulk of the jurists of the various regions. Most of these nevertheless oblige her to perform ablution before every prayer, while some—Mālik among them—consider that mere recommendation rather than an obligation.
A different group, apart from the foregoing, hold that the mustaḥāḍah must perform a complete bath for each individual prayer. Others maintain that she is required to delay Ẓuhr until the beginning of ʿAṣr, then bathe and combine the two; likewise she should postpone Maghrib until the end of its time and the start of ʿIshāʾ, bathe again and combine them, and finally take a third bath for the Dawn prayer. According to this view three baths are obligatory within every twenty-four hours.
Yet another opinion is that she owes only one bath in the course of each day and night; some who hold this view do not assign that bath to a specific time, and this is narrated from ʿAlī. Others still say she should bathe from one state of ritual purity to the next.
In sum, the question yields four principal positions:
- She is liable for but a single bath, and that only when the menstrual blood ceases.
- She must bathe for every prayer.
- She must perform three baths in every day and night.
- She must perform one bath in every day and night.
The cause of their disagreement is the apparent divergence in the ḥadīths that address the matter. The well-known narrations on the subject are four: one whose authenticity is agreed upon, and three concerning which there is debate.
The agreed-upon narration is the ḥadīth of ʿĀʾishah who said:
“Fāṭimah bint Abī Ḥubaish came to the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, I am a woman who experiences continuous bleeding and never becomes pure; should I leave off the prayer?’ He replied, ‘No. It is only a vein, not menstruation. When the period arrives, refrain from prayer; and when it ends, wash the blood from yourself and pray.’”
In some transmissions of this ḥadīth there is the additional phrase, “and perform ablution for every prayer.” This addition is not recorded by al-Bukhārī or Muslim; Abū Dāwūd transmitted it, and a number of ḥadīth scholars deemed it sound.
The second ḥadīth is that of ʿĀʾishah from Umm Ḥabībah bint Jahsh, the wife of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf: “She suffered continuous bleeding, and the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—commanded her to bathe for every prayer.”
Isḥāq related this wording from al-Zuhrī, whereas the other students of al-Zuhrī transmit only that “she experienced continuous bleeding, asked the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—about it, and he said to her, ‘It is only a vein; it is not menstruation.’”