to use the sanitary pads that are readily available today.

Third: Post-partum Bleeding (nifās)

A – Definition and duration

Post-partum bleeding is the blood that issues from the womb on account of childbirth and thereafter. It represents the remainder of the blood that was retained in the uterus during pregnancy; once the child is delivered, this blood is released little by little. Any blood a woman sees before delivery that is accompanied by the signs of labour is likewise classed as nifās. The jurists have limited that pre-delivery period to two or three days, although in most cases the bleeding actually begins with childbirth itself.

For the ruling of nifās to apply, what emerges must be something in which the form of a human being is distinguishable. The least period in which such features can appear is eighty-one days, and most commonly three months. If a miscarriage occurs before that time and is accompanied by bleeding, she pays no attention to it and is not excused from prayer or fasting on its account; it is considered unsound blood—merely abnormal bleeding—so she takes the ruling of a woman experiencing istiḥāḍah.

The maximum duration of nifās in the vast majority of cases is forty days, beginning from childbirth or from two or three days beforehand, as mentioned above, on the strength of the ḥadīth of Umm Salamah (Allah be pleased with her): “In the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ a woman who had given birth would refrain (from prayer) for forty days.” (1)

The scholars are unanimously agreed on this point, as related by al-Tirmidhī and others, and whenever