Answered by Ustadha Naielah Ackbarali
If a woman’s period is normally 6-7 days and in her last period she experiences only light bleeding and it lasts 5 days, and then a week passes. She is clean for a week and then another bleeding starts and this time it is heavier bleeding. Since she has not had 15 clean days, is she obligated to make wudu and pray or should she not pray because the bleeding is heavy? (this second bleeding has been going on for 3 days so far)
Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahimi
Assalamu alaykum
Jazak Allah khayr for your question.
All colored discharge is considered blood in the Hanafi mathhab, regardless of its intensity in color or flow.
The bleeding seen for 5 days is menstruation, if it occurred during the time of her habitual menstrual period. However, there is a principle in the fiqh of menstruation that an invalid duration of purity (tuhr) is treated as continuous blood flow. As such, a woman must return to her habit and all bleeding outside of these days is considered istihada.
For example, a woman’s habit is 7 complete days. On day 5, her bleeding stops. She is obliged to perform ghusl and begin praying and fasting if Ramadan. She should also perform ghusl on day 7 out of precaution. If she sees blood 7 days later, according to the Sacred Law, she was technically bleeding the entire time, even though she did not see actual blood within these days.
Thus, she must return to her menstrual and tuhr habits. Any prayers or fasts done from days 5-7 are invalid. If she took a ghusl on day 7, then she does not have to make up any prayers performed after this day.
However, if she did not perform ghusl, she must make up the prayers that she completed until the next time she took a ghusl. The reasoning for this is because her menstruation technically stopped on day 7. If she did not take a ghusl, then the prayers she performed were in a state of impurity and are not valid.
The bleeding seen after day 7 is treated as istihada, this is because the following tuhr is incomplete. Therefore, she is obliged to pray and fast if Ramadan. In this example, she must return to her tuhr habit and start counting from day 8 after her menstrual habit was complete. Once this time elapses, bleeding seen within the possible days of menstruation is considered menstruation.
Jazak Allah Khayr.
updated and edited: 2006/11/28