He then mentioned sound examples, including that of a woman suffering from abnormal vaginal bleeding, who said: “I suffer from severe, persistent bleeding that prevents me from prayer and fasting.” He instructed her to pray throughout the duration of the bleeding, but did not instruct her to make up the prayers.

I say: This woman was Fatimah bint Abi Hubaysh—may Allah be pleased with her. Her hadith is recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim, as well as others, and is cited in Sahih Abi Dawud (281).

Likewise, Umm Habibah bint Jahsh, the wife of Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf, suffered from abnormal bleeding for seven years. Her hadith is likewise recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim and cited in Sahih Abi Dawud (283).

There was a third woman: Hamnah bint Jahsh, to whom Ibn Taymiyyah referred. Her hadith states: “I suffer from abundant, severe, persistent bleeding. What is your view concerning it? It has prevented me from prayer and fasting...” The hadith was reported by Abu Dawud and other compilers of the Sunan with a good chain of transmission, and a number of scholars declared it authentic. It is cited in Sahih Abi Dawud (293) and al-Irwa’ (188).

Furthermore, there is another explicit statement from Imam Ahmad which ought to have been added to what has previously been quoted from him, because of its close connection to it and because it likewise indicates that one who abandons prayer does not become a disbeliever merely by abandoning it. But such was Allah’s decree. Abdullah ibn Ahmad said in his Masa’il (p. 56/195):

“I asked my father about a man who had neglected two months’ prayers. He replied:

‘He should pray whenever he remembers those prayers, and continue praying until the time of the prayer during which he remembered these neglected prayers is about to end. He should then perform the prayer whose time he fears may expire, so that he does not neglect it twice. Then he should resume praying until he fears that the time of the following prayer will expire—unless this becomes too much for him, and he is someone who must seek a livelihood and is unable to perform them. In that case, he should pray until he needs to seek what will sustain him, then return to’