Chapter on Menstruation, Irregular Bleeding, and Post-Partum Bleeding

The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said to Fāṭimah bint Abī Ḥubaysh: “When your menstrual period begins, leave off the prayer.”

The scholars are unanimously agreed that a menstruating woman neither prays nor fasts for as long as the bleeding continues. They likewise agree that she is not required to make up the prayers she misses, whereas she must make up the missed fast-days.

A woman who is menstruating or experiencing post-partum bleeding must perform every obligatory prayer for which she attains purity while its time still remains. It is not permissible for her husband to recline with her in a manner that involves contact between the thighs unless she has wrapped her lower body with a waist-cloth. Imām Mālik added: It is unlawful for him to have intercourse with her once she sees that the bleeding has stopped until she has taken the ritual bath.

In all these rulings, the menstruating woman and the woman in post-partum bleeding are the same. The maximum length of menstruation is fifteen days, and there is no fixed minimum.

Any blood that issues from the womb is deemed menstruation—whether its amount is small or great, even if it appears only once—until it exceeds the recognized maximum, at which point it becomes clear that it is something else.