Question: Does vaginal discharge have to be white or clear to be deemed pure?
Answer:
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate,
Assalamu ‘alaykum dear sister in faith,
The consistency, color, and frequency of vaginal discharge vary throughout a woman’s cycle. The color of discharge that you normally observe, outside the times of menstruation, should be taken as your default color of purity. It does not have to be pure white nor clear. Any darker tinge, then, maybe considered as either menses (hayd) or irregular flow (istihada). [Birgivi, Dhukhr al-Muta’ahilin]
The rulings of the Hanafi School on menstruation are meant to sync with a women’s natural biorhythm. It may occur that a woman experiences flow that is deemed legally pure or a state of legal purity during which she experiences flow. However, this is not the norm and should not be the case most of the time.
I welcome you to inquire about the details of this matter further.
Allah always grants alleviation to those who are conscious of Him.
He, Most High, knows best.
[Ustadha] Iman Badawi
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani