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Many women seek advise about the limit for period of menstruation or the period of cleanliness whereafter the restriction on prayer ends.
Some women have irregular menstruation period and the period of cleanliness, while others suffer a continuous blood discharge, which may extend to weeks. Many women seek advise about the limit for period of menstruation or the period of cleanliness whereafter the restriction on prayer and sex ends.
There is no set limit for menstruation, which applies to all women. This is something that relates to the physical constitution of every woman. Hence, there is a wide range of variation between women, although the overwhelming majority continues in menstruation for seven days. Many women finish their periods after six days, while others may go on to the eighth day before they are finally clean. A few may have longer or shorter periods.
Although most women have a regular period, which comes every 28-30 days, some are not so regular. Therefore, there is no maximum limit for the length of time of cleanliness from menstruation. On the other hand, some scholars say that the longest that a menstruation period can take is 10 days. The weightier opinion is that there is no such limit. Every woman knows her normal course and she acts accordingly.
Sometimes, a woman continues to discharge blood after the end of her menstrual period. The discharge may continue week after week. She has to differentiate between menstruation and a normal blood discharge. The two are different. During her menstruation, a woman may not pray, fast or have sexual intercourse with her husband. The case is different when she has a blood discharge. What a woman should do if she has such a discharge is to calculate her menstruation period on the basis of its normal length, and she takes a bath and pays no attention to the discharge apart from taking the normal precautions not to allow the blood to fall on her clothes or body. Umm Salamah, the wife of the Prophet (Pbuh), asked him about a woman who continues to bleed. He said: “Let her calculate the nights and the days which she used to menstruate every month. She should not pray during these days. Thereafter, she takes a bath, uses a piece of cotton or cloth (to absorb bleeding) and prays.” (Related by Al-Bukhari, Muslim and others).
The case is known in the books of Fiqh as “Istihadhah” which is different from menstruation which means “haith.”
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