Women Islamic laws

It is possible that Nifa-s blood may be discharged for an instant only, but it never exceeds 10 days. Depending on the normal habit of the woman’s haydh, the rules of the length of Nifa-s differ as follows 242:

1. For a woman who has a fixed habit of haydh:

a. Her Nifa-s will be equal to then normal duration of haydh.

b. If her habit is less than ten days, after this time she has a choice to leave out her Sala-t until ten days, or act as a mustahadha (a woman in the condition of istihadha); however, it is better to leave out Sala-t for one day (in addition to the regular number of days she had a period for before pregnancy).

c. If, however, the blood continues to be seen even after ten days, then all they days after the normal duration of haydh, until the 10th day, will be istihadha, and she should give Qadha of the acts of worship not performed during this time upto the 10th day (as she will have followed the rulings of istihadha after the 10th day anyway).

d. When acting as a mustahadha, she must refrain from acts forbidden to a Nafsa as well until the 18th day.

Example: If the haydh duration of a woman has always been six days and her blood comes for more than six days, she should treat six days as Nifa-s and on the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th day, (if the bleeding does not exceed ten days) it will be her choice either to abstain from all acts of worship or adopt the rules of istihadha. If, however, she sees blood for more than ten days, all the days in excess of her habitual duration of haydh will be treated as the days of istihadha and qada- will have to be offered for Sala-t missed if she chose to abstain from all acts of worship on the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th day.

2. For a woman who does not have a fixed habit of haydh

a. Her Nifa-s will be ten days, and the rest will be istiha-dha.

b. It is a recommended precaution that while acting as a mustahadha, to refrain from acts forbidden to a nafsa from the 10th to the 18th day.

When the period of Nifa-s is over? 243

When a woman becomes ritually clean from Nifa-s, she should do Ghusl and perform acts of worship. If she sees blood again, once or often, there are two possibilities:

1. The total number of days on which blood is seen immediately after childbirth and the intervening days during which she remains ritually clean is 10 days or less than 10 days, then all of it will be Nifa-s.

In the intervening days, as a precaution, she will perform all that is obligatory for a ritually clean woman and also refrain from all acts which are forbidden to a woman in Nifa-s. So, if she had kept fasts, she will give their qada-.

2. If the blood which she saw later exceeds ten days then again, the rules differ depending on the normal habit of the woman’s haydh:

a. For a woman who has a fixed habit of haydh

As a precaution, she should consider the blood seen after the normal haydh duration to be istiha-dha; therefore she should act as a mustahadha, and also avoid all that is forbidden to a nafsa.

b. For a woman who does not have a fixed habit of haydh

She should count the first ten days as Nifa-s, and the rest as istiha-dha.

Notes:

242 Islamic Laws, Rule 523, 524, 525, 526

243 Islamic Laws, Rule 520

Adapted from the book: "From Marriage to Parenthood; The Heavenly Path" by: "Abbas and Shahin Merali"