Fiqh For Sisters 19/44 - Rulings of Haydh (menstrual cycle), Istihadhah, Nifas.

'A'udhu bil-Lahi, min al-Shaytan, al-rajim. Bismi-Llah, Al-Rahmani, Al-Rahim. Al-hamdulil-Lahi Rabbi al-‘Alamin, wa as-salat wa as-salam 'ala Sayyidina Muhammad, wa 'ala aalih, at-tahirin.

What are the conditions of Haidh?

Number one is: bulugh. When we say maturity, we mean 'bulugh'. And what is the condition for bulugh? It is the reaching of nine, the completion of nine lunar years. The completion, hijri years, or its equivalent in the Gregorian calendar: eight years and nine months. So, beginning is after maturity, after bulugh - which is nine lunar years, and the ending is until she reaches the age of ya's. The age of ya's, we can loosely translate as 'menopause', entering into menopause, and that is 50 years for a non-Qarashi and 60 years for a Qarashi woman. Equivalent in 50 years, equivalent in the Gregorian calendar is 48 years and six months, 48 years and six months. Anything that a woman sees before nine is istihadhah. Anything that a woman sees after menopause - after ya's - is istihadhah. Even if it has the qualities, the features of haidh.

Now, with salah, it is not wajib for you to repeat your salah. You do not have to repeat your salah at all. With sawm, with fasting, you have to repeat your salah. Unless in salah, unless you have a nidhr, a vow, that you have done, and that vow falls in the period in the time of your haidh. In this case, because you have missed out on a gap, you might have to redo that time.

As for fasting, no. It is wajib for you to repeat it, even if you were fasting the whole day and five minutes before maghrib, and she realizes that her haidh has started. In this case, she is required to repeat the whole day. So it is never wajib to repeat your salah. It will be wajib to repeat your fasting.

How about Salat al-Ayat? This depends on what type of events occurred. this depends on what type of event occurred. And there is a difference of opinion among our Ulama' in this regard, in Salat al-Ayat. According to... It says: "for Salat al-Ayat, it is wajib for a woman to do it, if it was something like an earthquake. However, if it is something fixed by time, like an eclipse - whether it be a solar eclipse or a lunar eclipse - and the woman had her haidh during that whole duration of time. Let's say, for example, it started at 06:00 p.m. and it finished at 10:00 p.m., for example. And from 06:00 p.m. till 06:00 P.m., the whole time she was in her haidh, in this case it is not wajib for her to do qadha for Salat al-Ayat." For kusuf, aw khusuf - lunar eclipse or a solar eclipse.

We have explained maturity, we have explained before y'as, bleeding. Of course, there needs to be a continuation of the bleeding, which is what haidh is. Minimum is three days, maximum is ten days. And those minimum three days need to be continuous. So if you see blood on day one and there is no more blood, and then you would see blood - for example - on day five, that is not going to be haidh. It needs to be three consecutive days, the bleeding.

Another important point is: there needs to be a gap between two haidhs. And that gap is a minimum of ten days. So minimum of ten days between two haidhs - minimum of ten days between two haidhs. That is very important. And the blood is not a blood of jar-h or qar-h. 'Da'mu qar-h' is a sore. Like - for example - for example, a rash or a burst, a pimple, a wart. That is called 'blood from a soul'. So just because a woman has blood coming out, this does not mean it is a haidh. It could be blood from a sore, from a scratch, from this, from that. 'Damu jar-h' is a wound, wherever it may be. What our Fuqaha usually gives as an example is the blood from the breaking of the hymen. And this blood is not to be considered as blood of haidh or istahadha. So 'dam ul-bikarah', dam ul-bikarah the blood of the hymen, this is not to be taken as istihadhah blood or haidh blood.

So a woman might have a regular cycle, 'dhat al-hada'. Or she might have an irregular cycle, which is 'dhat khair al-hada'. And with a woman who has a 'dhat khair al-hada', regular cycle means she has a cycle. It starts and it finishes, she knows when and how. Okay. It could start, same time and have the same amount of days. This is called adadiya waqtiyah. 'Adad is the time - 'adad is the number, sorry. And waqt is the time. Same time, same number. Every month starts on the fifth, ends on the 12th. No change.

Another scenario is, it is waqtiyah. It starts always on the same day, but it might be six days, it might be seven days, or might be eight days. Another time is hadadiyah. She gets it in different times during the month, but each time it is for the same amount of days. Then you have ghairu dhat il-hada: a woman who does not have a regular cycle, a regular menstrual cycle. In this case, it is either because she is a mubtadiha, which means she is beginning. It is her early stages of her mensing. Or she is nasiyah: she is forgotten, she does not know 'how, when this, that'.

Or it is mudhtaribah, which means it is mixed up: one day to three days, one day to six days, one day this, one day that... Confused. This could be because of a sickness, hormonal changes, after having a baby, during pregnancy, after being with her- after wedding. You know. Everything changes when she is with a man for the first time and things like that. Everything changes. Her hormones and everything else. So, in each of these cases there are explanations. For example, let's say if a woman knows that she is a hadadiya waqtiya - same time, same number, all the time - she knows on day seven she is going to be doing this. Then, for example, she sees some blood another time - outside of that - she considers that blood, that extra blood, to be istihadhah blood.

Where was I? Okay, let's say, for example, she has no idea when she started. What is happening? That blood is all confusing her. What does she do in this case? She goes to her family members, for example. The females in her family. And because of that confusion and that disturbance she takes if she is just irregular bleeding all the time, it is just bleeding. She takes her family member of her age, for example, around about her age, or her relatives around about her age, same description and things like that. And she aligns her cycle with their cycle. For example. If a woman who is in her menstrual cycle and she knows - please pay attention - she knows she is in her menstrual cycle and a man who knows that she is in her menstrual cycle, if they were to become intimate, this is, number one: a sin, a major sin. And number two: she needs - if it was her fault - she needs to pay kaffarah for this. If it was his fault, he needs to do so. And it depends on when this happens in the cycle. If it is in the first third or if it is in the middle third, or if it is in the second third.

Like for example, she has it for six days. If this is done in the first two days, she pays one dinar, one shara'i dinar? Not one dinar, as in dinar and dirham that you might find in Iraq or Imarat or that. No, shara'i dinar, which is according to one calculation, one shara e dinar equals 3.5 grams of pure gold. Ya'ni 24 carat gold. Okay. Pure gold. Right. Now, you need to refer back to your marja taqli to see exactly what is a shara e dinar. Because some foqoha have difference of opinion. 3.4, 3.6, 3.7 roughly around this amount. If it is in the second third of her cycle, ya'ni the only day three and four, she pays half a dinar. If it is in the third, then she pays a quarter of a dinar. If it is towards the end of her cycle. Right. Now, is it wajib for the couple to wait until she does her ghusl, gushl haidh, until they are allowed to become the intimate again? The answer is no, it is not wajib, it is just highly makrooh. It is makrooh. How about other types of pleasure? Sexual pleasure? Other types, other than intercourse, there is no problem. There is no shara'i issue. There is no shara'i issue with this.

Okay? Okay. Thank you. What are the makrooh things for a woman who is in haidh? For a ha'idh - a woman who is in haidh - what is makrooh to do? Makrooh things for a ha'idh.

Number one is al-Khidhab. Khidhab means to put on henna, whether it be on your hair or on your hands, on your feet. As we know, al-khidhab is something mustahab and putting on henna is mustahab. And during a woman - during her circle - it is makrooh.

Number two: is holding the Quran on the border, which is like this example here. Okay? Holding the Quran and the border.

Number three: is reciting the Holy Quran, even if it is less than seven verses.

Number four: is to visit someone who is on their deathbed, someone who is in the state of ihtidhar. It is makrooh. It is not makrooh to go to the cemetery. It is not makrooh to participate in all of the other things. It is only makrooh from what I was reading this morning: when a person is on their deathbed for a woman to go and visit them or sit with them rather.

How about mustahab things? It is always mustahab to be as hygienic as possible. To remove and change and clean the cloth, as it says in the ahadith: always mustahab to be on wudhu. Especially during the times of prayer, whether it is a wajib prayer or a mustahab prayer. Like for example: Salat al-Layl, or Salat al-Fajr, or anything else, mustahab for you to roll out your prayer mat and sit down on the sajada, on the prayer mat in your mihrab place and do ibadah, but not pray. Facing the qiblah with wudhu do dhikr, like for example: to say the Subhana Allah to the four tasbihat: Subhana Allahi Wa al-hamdu li-Llahi Wa la ilaha illa Allah, wa Allahu Akbar, as many times as you can during the times of your salah. To du'a Kumail, du'a Tawassul, du'a this, du'a that, very normal to do. Dhikr, always. Do dhikr Salawat, this, that: mustahab for you to do.

Face the qib, that should be qiblah. To face the qiblah, always - of course - and during the times of your acts of worship for you to recite the Quran is also recommended. Except for those four verses that are haram for you to recite. And last but not least is to make sure you do the mustahab ghusls: Laylat al-Qadr, Ghusl al-Jumu'a, et cetera, et cetera.

Okay. End of haidh. It is wajib for you to check that the bleeding has stopped. It is the end of haidh. You need to wait and check and double check. And if there is no blood and the haidh is finished, then that is totally fine. If not, you cannot do any ghusl or anything else until your done.

As for istihadhah, we have explained what istihadhah was. The point here is: how do you define if you have istihadhah Qalilah or Mutawassitah or Kathira. the way of defining is by entering a cloth, a cut piece of cotton, for example. If it is just on the surface - the blood - then that is Qalilah and you want to do wudhu for the salah. If now the blood has gone inside the cotton, for example, then this would be istihadhah Mutawassitah. Which means you do one ghusl for the day. If now, it is full of blood, it is immersed in blood, in this case, it would mean that you are in a state of istihadhah Kathira and that means that you will need to do a ghusl for each salah.

The last is for Nifas. For nifas, if it is while you are delivering the child, after you are delivering the child, it is considered as a Nifas. How about if a woman has a miscarriage? Then if it is 'alaqa, which is up to 40 days, then according to Sayyid as-Sistani, then it is not nifas. According to Khamene'i, if it is considered to be a fetus, then it is considered Nifas. If it is from 120 days, and there is bleed and there is, for example, a miscarriage or something, then it is considered to be Nifas.

Wa as-salamu 'alaykum, wa Rahmatu Allahi, wa barakatuh.