Written By Dr. Aysha Wazwaz
Question I was asked: I’m currently on the pill (contraception). Sometimes I forget to take my pill for a of days which results in bleeding for a day or two. This blood IS dark like the color of menstrual blood but has NO smell at all.
The blood does stop eventually about a day or two after continue to take the pills I missed. This can happen at any time of the month depending when I’ve forgotten to take the pills. In my current case it’s about 2 weeks from the start of my last proper period.
I want to know if I can pray during this time because I’m unsure if this is counted as menses or not. If I can pray, presumably I’d have to make Wudu before every salah as with post natal blood?
ANSWER:
Wa alykum asalam,
To answer the question, we first must understand the concept of menstruation and women’s discharges in Islam.
In Islam, there are three bloody discharges; each has its name, definition and rulings that relate to it.
A) Menstrual bleeding: which is the monthly cycle bleeding that ovulating women get. In Islam, it is known by its dark red and blackish color, heavy thick texture, and with a fishy strong odor. Some women have regular cycles; which is every 21-28 days. Other women have irregular cycles. Women with regular cycles may define their periods by determining the blood texture (i.e. black, stinky odor) along with timing and other body symptoms (such as cramping, tenderness in breasts…etc.) as signs to help define her cycle days. Women that have irregular periods determine by examining the texture along with symptoms, since timing is not possible. Keeping in mind, that bloody discharge in healthy women is mostly menstrual bleeding, unless proven otherwise. . Although scholars had differed in opinion on the least and most number of days for a women’s cycle. There really is no authentic evidence for the highest and least number of days. Every woman has a different cycle, and in fact a woman’s period is not the same every month either.
Rulings that relate to differentiating between women’s bleeding are:
Menstruating women:
– do not pray, and is not mandated to make it up either.
– Menstruating women do not fast Ramadan, but are required to make it up.
– Intercourse during menstrual bleeding is extremely prohibited in Islam.
– A man is sinned for divorcing his wife during her period, with different opinions between scholars on whether the divorce is valid or not.
– In case of divorce, menstruating women wait three menstrual cycles before leaving the marriage in the first two divorces.
B) The second type of bleeding is the post-partum bleeding, which is after the delivery or abortion of a human shaped fetus or a full grown baby alive or dead (81 days/ 12 weeks of pregnancy). There is no minimum number of bleeding days for post-partum. Whenever the bleeding stops, she basically showers for ending the bleeding, and is then obligated to pray, fast and may even have intercourse with her husband unless it harms her.
Scholars had different opinions on the maximum number of days ranging from forty to sixty days. But Allahu A’lam the preponderant ruling is that if the maximum number of post-partum is forty days based on the hadith and not the words of Tab’een as in Madhab Malik which considered sixty days based on the words of Tab’een.
What does a woman not do during her post-partum?
A woman during the days of her post-partum does not pray, and is not obligated to make it up. Yet, she does make up the days she missed from fasting Ramadan, which she was obligated to break her fast in. Women may not have intercourse during their post-partum bleeding. In general, post-partum bleeding takes the same rulings as menstrual bleeding.
C) The third type of bleeding is any bleeding or discharge that is not menstrual or post- partum, which is called (Istihada). Unlike menstrual bleeding, it could be red or bright red, or pink or even other colored discharge. It does not have an odor. And is not during the cycle days.
Rulings that relate to women during Istihada
– Women during istihada are obligated to pray and fast normally, but make wadu for every salat, as long as the discharge is persistent.
– She may also have intercourse with her husband, with different opinions between scholars.
– Istihada does not affect divorce, and is not used for calculating waiting periods (idda).
Brownish discharge (known as Kudra) is not necessarily istihada. Scholars had different opinions on it. The different opinions ranged from considering it as istihada, to other opinions differentiating whether it came before or after the period. Some scholars considered it part of a period if it comes after a period but not before, others considered it a period if it comes before the period and not after.
Preponderant on brownish discharge
Through studying the hadiths there really is no evidence on any of the opinions. As brown discharge is actually old blood. If the discharge comes within the timing of a women’s period, then it’s part of her period days whether it was in the beginning or the end of her cycle days since it’s actually old blood anyways. And the general ruling on women’s bleeding is that it’s supposed to be menstrual unless proven otherwise, as Ibn Taymiya said. If it is discharged during times other than the menstrual times, it then would be part of istihada or postpartum if it is during the forty days after delivery.
Many factors may disrupt a women’s cycle, and that is left for the specialist in Gynecology to research. In Islam, if a woman’s cycle is disrupted whether due to IUD’s or contraceptive pills or other reasons, she mainly depends on the blood’s texture and timing in case of regular periods to determine her period as previously mentioned. There is no one answer fits all, since every woman’s cycle is different, and every cycle is different for the same woman. Therefore, if a woman is spotting for missing a number of days on her contraceptive pills, it will depend on how far she is away from her last cycle, and the texture of that bleeding. If the texture was dark black red, heavy, with an odor. That’s the texture of a period. If it was dark red as mentioned in the question, with no odor and not heavy and thick, that’s not menstrual bleeding but istihada. If the spotting was bright red or even red, then that’s also istihada even if the amount was big. Remember it’s not the quantity that matters it’s the quality and texture of the bleeding that determines menstrual from istihada.
How does a woman know the end of her cycle or post-partum?
When the bleeding stops, that means it’s over. But confusion may rise, since it ends gradually. To explain this, if the cervical mucus is discharged as white with no streaks of blood, brown, pinkish or yellow discharge, her period had ended. It’s basically the easiest way to determine. But the cervical mucus usually takes a longer while after the end of the period, and usually there is a moment of dryness and no discharge what so ever when wiping the area with a clean white napkin. In this situation, she may wait a whole day before she takes her shower, if she discovered that her period was over for the whole day and no discharge was present, then she is obligated to shower to pray and fast. But since she had discovered that her period had ended a long while ago, she is obligated to make up those prayers that she had missed waiting to make sure her period had ended.
If the woman has constant bleeding, she is to use the previously mentioned ways- i.e. timing, texture…etc. to distinguish the beginning and ending of her period and the start of istihada.
Allahu A’lam.
Allahu A’lam
Note: names of scholars that held some opinions, along with detailed evidences were not mentioned to make the matter easy to understand. There may be other opinions on certain points that were not mentioned as well to give a fast and easy answer understood by non fiqh specialists.
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