Women Islamic laws

According to the shari'ah, all the women are not same as far as the rules of menstruation are concerned. By taking into consideration the difference in regulari­ty of time and days of monthly periods and their ir­regularity, women can be divided into three main groups:

1. Mubtadi'ah:literally, a beginner; in the present context it means a girl who sees menstruation for the first time.

2. Zatu 'l-'adah:a woman who has menstruation regularly at a fixed time or for a fixed number of days or both. If a woman has two consequent periods with regularity in time of their occurance and duration, then she is a zatu 'l-'adah = a woman who has formed a fix­ed pattern for her monthly periods.

On the other hand, if a zatu 'l-'adah woman discovers that her fixed pattern for menstruation has changed and this happens for two consequent months, then she should follow the new pattern.

The zatu 'l-'adah women can be of three types:

(a) a woman whose periods occur at a fixed time and for a fixed number of days. For example, on 1st of every month and lasts for 7 days con­tinuously or with a pause on the fourth day.

(b) a woman whose periods occur at a fixed time but not for a fixed number of days. For exam­ple, on 1st of every month but sometimes for 4 days and at other times for 5 days.

(c) a woman whose periods occur for a fixed number of days but not at a fixed time. For ex­ample, she has her periods for 4 days but not at a fixed time, sometimes on 1st and sometimes on 4th of every month.

3. Muztaribah:a woman who does not have her periods with regularity. For example, a woman has her one period on the 1st of the month for five days and her second on the 5th of the month for three days and her third period on the 10th of the month for four days. Muztaribah here means a woman who has an irregular pattern for her monthly periods.

Adopted from the book : "The Ritual Ablutions for Women (Taharatu N-Nisa')" by : "Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi"