There are fifteen kinds of gusl: Five of them are farz, five of them are wâjib, four of them are sunnat, and one of them is mustahab. Ghusls that are farz: When a woman’s (or a girl’s) menstrual or puerperal period is over, after coitus, i.e. sexual intercourse, after lustful seminal ejaculation, after a nocturnal emission and seeing semen in one’s bed or underpants, it is farz to make a ghusl before the prescribed time of an unperformed namâz is over.
Ghusls that are wâjib: It is wâjib to wash a dead Muslim and for a child to make a ghusl as soon as it reaches the age of puberty. When husband and wife sleeping together wake up and see some seminal fluid between them and do not know which party it belongs to, it is wâjib for both of them to make ghusl. When you see on yourself some seminal remains and cannot estimate the time when it was ejaculated, then it will be wâjib for you to make a ghusl. And, when a woman bears a child, it is wâjib for her to make a ghusl even if no bleeding has taken place. (It is farz to make a ghusl in case of bleeding.)
Ghusls that are sunnat: To make a ghusl for Friday and ’Iyd days and at the time of Ihrâm –regardless of your niyya (intention)– and before climbing Arafât (hill). [Please see the fourth chapter of the fourth fascicele of Endless Bliss for ‘ghusl’, and the seventh chapter of its fifth fascicle for details on ‘Hajj’.] Ghusl that is mustahab: When a disbeliever becomes a Believer, it is –farz for him (or her) to make a ghusl if he (or she) was junub before becoming a Believer, (which means a state which necessitates a ghusl. Otherwise, it is– mustahab for him (or her) to make a ghusl.
There are three harâms in ghusl:
1– For both sexes to expose parts of their body between immediately below the navel and between the knees in the presence of other people of their sex when making ghusl; (in other words, it is harâm for men to show their body limbs between below the navel and below the knees to other men, and for women to show their same body areas to other women, as they make a ghusl.)
2– According to a qawl, it is harâm for Muslim women to show themselves to non-Muslim women when making a ghusl. (This rule must be observed at other times as well.)
3– Waste of water; (in other words, it is harâm to use more than necessary water when making a ghusl.)
In the Hanafî Madhhab, there are thirteen sunnats to be observed when making a ghusl:
1– To make istinjâ with water. In other words, to wash the anus and the genitals.
2– To wash the hands below the wrists.
3– If there is any real najâsat on the body, to remove it.
4– To be over-attentive in making mazmaza and istinshâq. (Masmaza means to rinse the mouth with water, and istinshâq means to snuff up water through the nostrils.) Ghusl will not be sahîh if there is a space as wide as the point of a needle unmoistened within the mouth or inside the nostrils. To make an ablution for namâz when beginning to make a ghusl.
5– To make niyya(t) for making a ghusl.
6– To rub each limb being poured water on, with hands.
7– To pour water first on the head, and next on the right and left shoulders, three times each.
8– To make khilâl between fingers and toes. In other words, to moisten between fingers and toes.
9– Not to turn your front or back towards the Qibla.
10– Not to talk on worldly matters when making o ghusl.
11– To make mazmaza and istinshâq three times each.
12– To begin washing each limb from the right.
13– Not to urinate at the place where you are making a ghusl if it is a place where the water (being used for the ghusl) is making up pools. There are other sunnats in addition to these sunnats which we have listed.
PRAYER of TAWHÎD
Yâ Allah, yâ Allah. Lâ ilâha il-l-Allah Muhammadun Rasûlullah. Yâ Rahmân, yâ Rahîm, yâ ’afuwwu yâ Kerîm, fa’fu ’annî wa-r-hamnî yâ enham-er-râhimîn! Tawaffanî musliman wa al-hiqnî bi-s-sâlihîn. allâhummaghfilî wa li-âbâî wa ummahâtî wa li âbâ-i wa ummahât-i-zawjâti wa li-ajdâdî wa jaddâtî wa l-ebnâî wa benâtî wa li-ihwatî wa ahawâtî wa li-a’mâmî wa ammâtî wa li ahwâlî wa hâlâtî wa li ustâzî ’Abd-ul-Hakîm-i-Arwâsî wa li-kâffa-t-il-mu’minîna wa-l-mu’minât. ‘Rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaihim ajma’în’.
THE CHAPTER on HAID wa NIFÂS
(Menstrual and Puerperal Periods)
Menstrual period is three days minimum and ten days maximum. There is not a fewest-days limit for puerperal period. As soon as the bleeding comes to an end it is necessary to make a ghusl and to perform namâz and to fast. It is forty days maximum. If the menstrual bleeding stops before the (minimum) three-days limit is over, the woman concerned makes qadâ of the prayers of namâz that she did not perform because she thought she was undergoing menstruation. [To make qadâ of an act of farz worship means to perform it after its prescribed time is over.] A ghusl is not necessary in this case. If the bleeding stops after the three-day period is over, then she makes a ghusl and performs the namâz within the prescribed time of which the bleeding stopped. After the (maximum) ten-days limit is over, she makes a ghusl and performs the time’s namâz, regardless of whether or not the bleeding has stopped. When the (maximum) forty-days period is over and therefore she has made a ghusl, she performs her namâz regardless of whether or not the bleeding has come to an end. All sorts of discharge during menstrual or puerperal days must be judged to be bleeding, (yellowish and turbid discharge alike.)
If bleeding discontinues for one or two days within the ten days of menstruation or the forty days of lochia and she makes a ghusl and fasts because she thinks that bleeding has come to an end and then bleeding recurs within the period, she will have to make qadâ of the fasts (that she has performed as if she had not performed them at all). And she will have to make a ghusl again when the bleeding is over. If the bleeding stops before her ’âdat and yet after the third day (of bleeding), then she makes a ghusl and performs her namâz. However, she does not have sexual intercourse with her husband before her ’âdat is over. The same rule applies in lochia. If the bleeding comes to an end after her ’âdat [The period between the day when bleeding is seen to start and the day when it is seen to stop is called ’âdat. It is three days minimum and ten days maximum in the Hanafî Madhhab, one day minimum and fifteen days maximun in Shâfi’î and Hanbalî Madhhabs. Please see the fiftieth page of the 2008 – fourteenth edition of the fourth fascicle of Endless Bliss for details.] is over and yet on the tenth day of bleeding or earlier, the entire period experienced is haid. If bleeding does not come to an end but continues after the tenth day is over, the bleeding after her ’âdat is not haid, and she will have to make qadâ of prayers belonging to those extra days, (i.e. the days after her ’âdat.) Forty puerperal days are identical with ten menstrual days.
When haid (menstrual bleeding) or nifâs (puerperal bleeding) ceases after a day dawns in Ramadân, she does not eat or drink, as if she were fasting, that day. However, it will not stand for a fast. She will have to make qadâ of that day, (i.e. she will have to fast for one day after the blessed month of Ramadân.) And if bleeding starts after dawn, be it seen after late afternoon, she eats and drinks in private. Generally speaking, if a women sees that she is bleeding, she stops performing namâz and fasting. And if it ceases before the third day is over, she waits patiently until the time of namâz verges on being over and, if bleeding is seen to recur, she does not perform namâz, and yet if the bleeding does not recur, she makes an ablution and performs namâz, and if bleeding recurs again, she ceases from namâz again. If bleeding ceases again, she waits until the time of namâz is nearly over and makes an ablution and performs her namâz in case the bleeding does not recur. She continues likewise until the third day is over, and a ghusl is not necessary in the meantime. Making an ablution only will be sufficient. If the bleeding ceases after the third day, she waits again until the time of the namâz is well-nigh over and makes a ghusl and performs her namâz if the bleeding does not recur, and if it recurs, she ceases from namâz. If it goes on likewise for ten days, then she makes a ghusl and performs her namâz, even in case of bleeding. This rule applies in nifâs (lochia) as well. However, a ghusl will be necessary at each time the bleeding ceases, even if it ceases on the first day. In Ramadân, if it ceases before dawn, she performs her fasting. If bleeding recurs at the time of kushluk, (which is during forenoon,) or after late afternoon, her fasting has not been fasting. So she will have to make qadâ of it (after the blessed month of Ramadân).
In case of a miscarriage, it will be as if she has given birth to a faultless child if its hair or mouth or nose has been formed. If none of its limbs has been formed, then it is not a case of nifâs (childbirth). However, if she bleeds for three or more days, it is a case of haid (menstruation). Yet it is not a case of haid, either, if the miscarriage took place fifteen or more days after the cessation of the previous menstrual bleeding and this new bleeding ceases before the end of three days, or if fifteen days have not elapsed after the cessation of the (previous) menstrual bleeding. It is a mere case of bleeding no different from a bloody nose. She has to perform her namâz. And she has to fast. A ghusl is not necessary before going to bed with her husband.
[Great Islamic scholar (Zeyn-ud-dîn) Muhammad Birgivî (bin ’Alî) ‘rahmatullâhi ’alaih’ (928 [1521 A.D.], Balıkesir – of plague in 981 [1573], Birgi, Aydın, Turkey,) wrote an extremely valuable book entitled Zuhr-ul-mutaahhilîn and explaining women’s menstrual and puerperal states. The book is in the Arabic language. ’Allâma Shâmî Sayyid Muhammad Emîn (or Amîn) bin ’Umar bin ’Abd-ul-’Azîz Ibni ’Âbidîn ‘rahima-hullâhu ta’âlâ’ (1198 [1784 A.D.], Damascus – 1252 [1836], the same place) enlarged that book and entitled it Menhel-ul-wâridîn. Here is (a summary of) what is written in Menhel(-ul-wâridîn): It has been stated unanimously by scholars of Fiqh that it is farz for every Muslim, man and woman alike, to learn (Islam’s teachings called) ’ilm-i-hâl. For that matter, women and their husbands should learn the teachings concerning haid and nifâs. Men should teach them to their wives or, if they do not know them, let them learn them from other women who know them. A woman whose husband will not let her learn them should go out and learn them without her husband’s permission. These teachings, which concern women, appears to have sunk into oblivion, as next to no man of religion knows about them. Contemporary men of religion are not learned enough to tell apart the kinds of bleeding called haid (menorrhoea), nifâs (lochial discharge), and istihâda (menorrhagia). They do not possess books enlarging on these subjects. And the ones who have books containing the information cannot read and understand them. For, these teachings are difficult to understand. On the other hand, religious matters such as ablution, namâz, (reading or reciting) the Qur’ân al-kerîm, fasting, i’tikâf, hajj (pilgrimage), reaching (the age of) puberty, marriage, divorce, a (divorced) woman’s period of ’iddat, istibrâ, etc. require learning the information pertaining to (the so-called kinds of) bleeding. It took me half of my lifetime to understand these teachings well. I shall try to explain briefly and clearly what I have learned for the benefit of my Muslim sisters:
Haid is the blood that starts to flow from the genitals of a healthy girl (at least) immediately over her eighth year of age, or of a woman after a period of full purity directly succeeding the last minute of her previous menstrual period, and which continues for at least three days. This bleeding is also called sahîh bleeding, (or sahîh catamenia.) If no bleeding is observed throughout the period of fifteen or more days following a period of ’âdat and which is between two menstrual periods, this period of purity is called sahîh purity. If there exist days of fâsid bleeding before or after a period of fifteen or more days of purity or between two periods of sahîh purity, all these days (interrupted by the so-called days of fâsid bleeding) are called hukmî purity or fâsid purity. Periods without any bleeding observed and yet which are shorter than fifteen days are called fâsid purity. Sahîh purity and and hukmî purity are called full purity. Bleedings that are observed before and after a period of full purity and which continue for (at least) three days each are two separate periods of haid.
Any colour of blood with the exception of white, and yet including a cloudy colour, is blood of haid.
When a girl starts to menstruate she becomes bâligha, (that is, she has reached the age of puberty.) In other words, she becomes a woman. The number of the days between the moment when bleeding is observed and the day when the bleeding ceases is period of ’âdat. Period of ’âdat is ten days maximum. It is three days minimum. In the Shâfi’î and Hanbalî Madhhabs, it is fifteen days maximum and one day minimum.
Haid is not necessarily a non-stop bleeding. If a bleeding observed to have started ceases and then is observed to recur one or two days later, the time of purity that takes place in between and which continues for shorter than three days, must be added to the period as if blood flowed continuously, according to a consensus of Islamic scholars. If that purity continues for three or more days and yet comes to an end before the tenth day of haid, it should be concluded that the bleeding has continued incessantly for ten days, according to a report that Imâm Muhammad ‘rahima-hullâhu ta’âlâ’ conveys from Imâm A’zam Abû Hanîfa ‘rahima-hullâhu ta’âlâ’. There is yet another scholarly report conveyed by Imâm Muhammad. On the other hand, according to Imâm Abû Yûsuf ‘rahima-hullâhu ta’âlâ’, all the days of purity that are over before the fifteenth day are to be added to the period as if the blood flowed incessantly. If a girl observes bleeding for one day and then experiences purity for the following fourteen days and thereafter bleeds for one day again; or if a woman undergoes a one day of bleeding and thereafter ten days of purity directly followed by one day of bleeding, or observes bleeding for three days and thereafter undergoes five days of purity and thereafter bleeds again for one day; the first ten days of the girl make up her meansrual period called ’âdat, according to Imâm Abû Yûsuf. As for the former woman, the number of days equalling her ’âdat are menstrual, all the days directly thereafter being istihâda (menorrhagia). All nine days of the latter woman are menstrual. According to Imâm Muhammad’s ‘rahima-hullâhu ta’âlâ’ first riwâya(t), (i.e. scholarly report,) only nine days of the former women are menstrual (haid). According to the second riwâyat of Imâm Muhammad, only the first three days of the latter woman are menstrual, and none of the others is menstrual. Translating from the book entitled Multeqâ (or Multaqâ) [Written by Ibrâhîm bin Muhammad Halabî ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’ (866, Aleppo – 956 [1549 A.D.], Istanbul. There is also a French version of the book.] for our current book, we have written all the following information in the light of Imâm Muhammad’s first riwâyat. One day, (in this context,) means exactly twenty-four hours. It is mustahab, for unmarried (virginal) women only during menses, and for married women always, to place a piece of cloth or cotton called kursuf (pad, sanitary towel, tampon) on the mouth of their genitalia, and to use perfume on it. It is makrûh for them to insert the entire kursuf into the vagina. A girl who observes blood stains on the kursuf every day for months on end must be accepted to be menstruating for the first ten days and undergoing istihâda for the following twenty days (of each month). This rule applies until this incessant bleeding, which is termed istimrâr, ceases. If a girl observes bleeding for three days running and then does not observe it for one day and then observes it again for one day and then does not observe it for two days running and then observes it again for one day and then does not observe it for one day and then observes it again for one day, all ten days are menstrual. If she sees blood one day and yet does not see it the following day, and if this every-other-day process continues for ten days monthly, she ceases from namâz and fasting every other day whereon she sees bleeding, and makes a ghusl and performs her daily namâz every other day whereon no bleeding takes place [Mesâil-i-sharh-i-wikâya]. [That book, in the Fârisî language, was written by ’Abd-ul-Haqq Sujâdil Serhendî ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’.] Bleeding that continues for a period shorter than three days, which equals seventy-two hours, be it shorter by five minutes or, for a newly pubescent girl, which is still being undergone after the tenth day when it continues for more than ten days, or, for a woman who is not new, which she undergoes after her ’âdat when it exceeds not only her ’âdat but the ten-day maximum, or which is undergone by a pregnant or âisa [old] woman or by a small girl under the age of nine, is not menstrual. It is called istihâda (menorrhagia), or fâsid bleeding. A woman becomes âisa around the age of fifty-five. If a woman whose ’âdat is five days observes bleeding when half of the sun has risen and her bleeding ceases as two-thirds of the sun rises in the eleventh morning, bleeding that she has undergone in excess of her ’âdat of five days isistihâda (menorrhagia). For, her bleeding has exceeded (the maximum limit of) ten days plus ten nights by one-sixth of sunrise. When ten days are over, she must make a ghusl and make qadâ of the namâzes which she did not perform on the days following her ’âdat.
A woman undergoing days of istihâda is a person with an ’udhr, like one who suffers from enuresis or continuous nose-bleeding. She has to perform namâz and fast, and waty (sexual intercourse) is permissible.
According to qawl of Imâm Muhammad, if a girl experiences a bleeding for the first time in her life, and if it continues for one day and pauses for eight days and recurs on the tenth day, all ten days are menstrual. However, if she bleeds for one day and the bleeding pauses for the following nine days and recurs the eleventh day, none of them is menstrual. The two days’ bleeding is istihâda. For, as it has been stated earlier, the days, of purity previous to the bleeding that is observed after the tenth day are not counted as menstrual. If she observes blood on the tenth and eleventh days, the days of purity in between will be counted as menstrual as well, and thereby the first ten days will be menstrual and the eleventh day will be istihâda.
Bleeding called istihâda (menorrhagia) is a sign of illness. Flow that is too long may be dangerous. It is necessary to consult a doctor. Red gum called dragon’s blood will stop the bleeding if it is rolled into small balls and swallowed with some water twice daily, one gram in the morning and one in the evening. The recommended daily amount is five grams maximum. A woman’s period of menstruation, as well as that of purity, is the same number of days every month. One month, in this context, is a length of time between the beginning of one haid and that of the next one. Every woman must learn by heart the number of days and hours during which she menstruates and her days and hours of purity, i.e. her ’âdat. A woman’s ’âdat does not change for long years. If it changes, she will have to memorize her new days of haid and purity.
The book entitled Menhel (ul-wâridîn) renders the following account on the changing of an ’âdat: If a woman menstruates in keeping with the time and days of her previous ’âdat, it should be concluded that her ’âdat has not changed. If it is out of keeping, then her ’âdat has changed, and the kinds of this change will be explained in the following pages. If it is out of keeping only once, then the ’âdat is accepted to have changed. This rule is confirmed by the fatwâ as well. If a woman with an ’âdat of five days observes blood for six days after a period of sahîh purity, these six days will be her new haid, new ’âdat. Number of the days of purity as well will change at a single event. When it changes, so does the time of ’âdat. Supposing a woman’s ’âdat is five days of bleeding followed by twenty-five days of purity; if her new ’âdet becomes three days of bleeding followed by twenty-five days of purity or five days of bleeding followed by twenty-three days of purity, then the days of bleeding or those of purity, respectively, have changed in number. Likewise, if bleeding exceeds the limit of ten days, so that fâsid bleeding takes place and the last three or more days of that fâsid bleeding concur with the days of her previous ’âdat and the remaining last days of her previous ’âdat concur with the new purity, the days concurring with the days of her (previous) ’âdat are her new ’âdat. Her ’âdat has changed now. If her ’âdat is five days and bleeding starts seven days before her days of purity are over and that bleeding continues for eleven days, that bleeding is fâsid bleeding because it exceeds ten days. More than three days of that bleeding, i.e. its four days, are within her previous ’âdat, and one day of her previous ’âdat falls within the new sahîh purity. Her period of ’âdat has become four days, although the period of time within which it takes place has not changed. Let us provide some more clarification for this type of change in ’âdat:
If new days of bleeding that are in number different from those previous to them continue for more than ten days and three or more days of them do not take place within the days of the previous ’âdat, the period of time within which the ’âdat takes place changes. No change in the number of the days (of ’âdat) takes place, and it begins the day when blood is observed. If a woman whose ’âdat is five days does not observe any bleeding within these five days in the following month, or if she does not observe any bleeding on its first three days, and thereafter she observes bleeding for eleven days, her menstrual period is five days, beginning with the day when bleeding is first observed; yet the time of her ’âdat has changed. If three or more days of the (new) bleeding fall within the days of her previous ’âdat, only these (three or more) days are menstrual, the remaining days being istihâda (menorrhagia). If she observes bleeding five days before her (previous) ’âdat and does not observe any bleeding within her (previous) ’âdat and observes bleeding for one day directly after her (previous) ’âdat, the five days of purity in between are, according to Imâm Abû Yûsuf, menstrual, and her ’âdat has not changed. If she observes bleeding for the last three days of her (previous ’âdat) and also for eight more days directly thereafter, its first three days are menstrual, and the number has changed. If the extra days of bleeding are few enough so that the addition will not exceed ten days and there follows a sahîh purity, the entire sum, (i.e. three plus fewer than eight days,) is menstrual. If the purity that followed were fâsid purity, then her ’âdat would not change. If her ’âdat is five days and yet observes bleeding for six days and thereafter undergoes purity for fourteen days and thereafter bleeding for one day, her ’âdat has not changed. Let us give eleven examples based on a hypothetical woman whose ’âdat consists of five days of haid and fifty-five days of purity to add elucidation to what has been said so far:
1– If this woman goes through a period of five days of menstruation and fifteen days of purity and thereafter eleven days of bleeding, no bleeding takes place within her (usual and also previous) ’âdat, which would have taken place fifty-five days later (than the end of her ’âdat of five days). So, the time of the ’âdat has changed but the number of its days has not changed. The first five days of the (final) eleven days are menstrual.
2– If she undergoes five days of bleeding followed by forty-six days of purity and eleven days of bleeding, in that case the last two days of the (final) eleven days fall within the period of ’âdat. However, since they are fewer than three days, the number of the days of ’âdat does not change although its time changes. Then, the first five of the eleven days are menstrual.
3– If she experiences five days of menstruation and forty-eight days of purity and then twelve days of bleeding, five of the twelve days are days of (the usual fifty-five days of) purity, and five days are menstrual. So, no change has taken place.
4– If she goes through five days of bleeding and fifty-four days of purity and one day of bleeding and fourteen days of purity and then one day of bleeding, the one day in between, (the earlier one day, that is,) is the last day of (her usual) purity. Since the fourteen days are nâqis (imperfect) purity, (in other words, because they are five days fewer than the accepted full purity,) they are days of bleeding, and the first five of them are menstrual. The time of ’âdat and the number of its days have not changed.
5– In a succession of five days of bleeding followed by fifty-seven days of purity followed by three days of bleeding followed by fourteen days of purity followed by one day of bleeding, the three days of bleeding are within the time of the ’âdat. The fourteen days which follow them are counted as days of bleeding. However, since the number exceeds eleven days, the ’âdat has changed only in its number of days.
6– If five days of bleeding and fifty-five days of purity and then nine days of bleeding which is followed by a sahîh purity, have been experiented, the (final) nine days of bleeding are menstrual. Only the number (of days of ’âdat) has changed. There are more than three days both in the time of ’âdat and thereafter.
7– In case of five days of bleeding followed by fifty days of purity followed by ten days of bleeding, the ten days are haid (menstrual). The ’âdat of days of purity has changed to fifty days. Days of bleeding are in the time of ’âdat, and so is their number.
8– In case of five days of bleeding and fifty-four days of purity and eight days of bleeding, the eight days are menstrual, and more than three days of it are in the ’âdat. Numbers of menstrual and purity days have changed by one day.
9– In case of five days of bleeding and fifty days of purity and seven days of bleeding, the seven days are menstrual, days as many as the number of nisâb are before the ’âdat and fewer than three days are in the nisâb. So, the haid has changed both in its time and in its number of days, whereas days of purity have changed only in number.
10– In case of five days of bleeding and fifty-eight days of purity and three days of bleeding, the three days are haid, two days of them being in the time of ’âdat and one day being after it. The ’âdat of haid has changed both in its time and in its number of days, and purity has changed only in its number of days.
11– In case of five days of bleeding and sixty-four days of purity and seven or eleven days of bleeding, in the former sub-case the seven days are menstrual, wherein change has taken place in the ’âdat and in time. In the latter sub-case, the earliest five of the eleven days are menstrual, the remaining six days being istihâda. The ’âdat changes only in its time. Since the bleeding continues for more than ten days, the number does not change. Purity changes in its number of days.
It is stated as follows by Imâm Fakhr-ud-dîn ’Uthmân Zeylâ’î ‘rahim-hullâhu ta’âlâ’ (d. 743 [1343 A.D.], Egypt), in his book
Tebyîn-ul-haqâiq, and by Ahmad bin Muhammad Shelbî ‘rahima-hullâhu ta’âlâ’ (d. 1031 [1621 A.D.], Egypt), in his annotation to the book: “If she undergoes bleeding one day before the ’âdat and ten days of purity and then one day of bleeding, her haid, according to Imâm Abû Yûsuf ‘rahima-hullâhu ta’âlâ’, begins with the ten days during which she has not observed any bleeding and continues as long as her ’âdat. The first and last days of her new haid are bloodless. For, bleeding has been observed before the ’âdat and after the tenth day, which means that the fâsid purity in between is to be counted as days of bleeding. According to Imâm Muhammad ‘rahima-hullâhu ta’âlâ’, the entire period is non-menstrual. Supposing a woman’s ’âdat is five days of bleeding followed by twenty-five days of purity:
“1– In case she undergoes bleeding one day earlier and one day of purity directly after that one day of bleeding and thereafter bleeding starts again and continues in a manner called ‘istimrâr’ (uninterrupted continuation) that carries it beyond the tenth day, five days of it, as long as her ’âdat, are menstrual, according to Imâm Abû Yûsuf. The days before and after it are menorrhagial bleeding (istihâda). According to Imâm Muhammad, three of the days of bleeding, i.e. the ones which concur with her ’âdat, are menstrual. Those three days are the second and third and fourth days of her ’âdat. For, she did not observe any bleeding on the first day of her ’âdat. The fifth one of the days whereon she observed bleeding, on the other hand, is outside of her ’âdat.
“2– If she observes bleeding on the first day of her ’âdat and thereafter undergoes o