he said to her:
“This flow is only one of Satan’s kicks. Therefore, count yourself menstruating for six days or seven—Allah knows best—then perform ghusl. When you see that you are clean and the bleeding has stopped, pray for twenty-four nights or twenty-three nights and fast during their days; that will suffice you. Do the same every month: menstruate as other women menstruate and purify yourself when they normally become pure.
If you have the strength, then delay Ẓuhr and bring ʿAṣr forward; bathe and pray Ẓuhr and ʿAṣr together. Next, delay Maghrib and advance ʿIshāʾ, bathe, and join the two prayers. Finally, bathe for Fajr and perform it. Act in this way, and pray and fast if you are able.”
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then said, “Of the two rulings, this one is the more pleasing to me.”
The compilers of the Sunan—apart from al-Nasāʾī—and others have recorded this report; I have also cited it in my marginal notes to the Muʿjam (p. 179, vol. 2). It is a ḥasan (sound) ḥadith.
What we have mentioned of the three situations is likewise the view of Aḥmad and Isḥāq. Al-Tirmidhī (1/227) relates: Aḥmad and Isḥāq said concerning the woman with chronic bleeding:
– If she can recognize her menses by the coming and going of the blood—its onset being dark and its cessation turning yellowish—then her ruling follows the ḥadith of Fāṭimah bint Abī Ḥubaysh.
– If the woman had fixed days of menstruation before her bleeding became continuous, she leaves the prayer during the days of her period, then performs ghusl, makes ablution for every prayer, and performs it.
– If the bleeding persists and she had no fixed days before istihāḍah, she still refrains from prayer for what she now regards as the days of her period, then performs ghusl, makes ablution for every prayer, and performs it. And if the bleeding continues and she has neither fixed days nor the ability to distinguish the blood by its onset and cessation, then the ruling concerning her is that of the ḥadith of Ḥamnah bint Jaḥsh.
Abū ʿUbayd expressed the same opinion.