Al-Dāraqutnī recorded the report as 81, and Muslim as 176. Muslim remarked: “So long as Abu Bilal is absent from the chain, it is a sound mursal report, for al-Hasan never heard directly from ʿUthman.” Al-Dāraqutnī added: “This Abu Bilal al-Ashʿarī is weak.”

A similar narration from ʿĀʾishah is found in al-Dāraqutnī, likewise through the aforementioned Abu Bilal: “Habban related to us, from ʿAtāʾ, from ʿAbd Allah ibn Abi Mulaykah, from her.” Al-Dāraqutnī commented: “Abu Bilal is weak, and ʿAtāʾ is Ibn ʿAjlān, whose ḥadith is abandoned.”

Another report comes from Jābir, who said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ set the period for women in post-partum bleeding at forty days.” Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it in al-Awsat; its chain contains Ashʿath ibn Sawār. Ibn Maʿīn considered him reliable, yet the scholars differed over adducing his reports as proof, as al-Haythamī notes in Majmaʿ (281); al-Taqrīb simply rules him weak.

There are further ḥadiths on this subject that will be mentioned shortly. I have also found a strong corroborating, but mawqūf, report: al-Dārimī (1/229–230) transmits—through Abū ʿAwanah, from Abū Bishr, from Yūsuf ibn Māhak, from Ibn ʿAbbās—who said, “A woman in post-partum bleeding waits forty days, or thereabouts.”

This chain is authentic according to the standards of the Six Books; al-Bayhaqī likewise records it (1/341).

If she becomes pure before that, she should perform a ritual bath and resume the prayer. On this point there are several reports which, taken together, reinforce one another.