10. Counting the waiting period according to the calendar

• And requires: − Ghusl (Major ablution) − Indicates the beginning of puberty − Counting the waiting period according to it. • Once the blood stops, fasting and divorce become permissible, but the rest of the acts forbidden during the period will not become permissible until ghusl (major ablution) is performed. • It is permissible for the menstruating woman to practice all forms of permissible sex except intercourse. • The shortest period of menstruation is one day and night according to the matn. The stronger position chosen by (T) and supported by the current medical sciences is that it could be one gush of blood. The longest is fifteen 105 International University in Latin America days but (H) maintain that it is only ten days, and that is medically stronger for thereafter it is considered abnormal. The shortest interval between two periods is thirteen days, and there is no limit for the longest. • Nine years is the youngest age at which a woman can start menstruation, and the latest age is sixty. In a different opinion, ten is the youngest. • According to the matn, if the woman who just started menstruating sees the blood for a period that is customary for menstruation, then she must abstain from the acts forbidden during hayd. However, if it stopped in a period shorter than a day and a night, it is not hayd. But if it exceeded that but did not exceed the longest period then it is hayd. • If it recurred with the same form and duration for three months it becomes an established habit. • If it exceeded the longest duration for hayd, then whatever is beyond it is non menstrual vaginal bleeding (istihadah). • In this case, she must have major ablution at the end of the hayd, and wash her external genitalia and wrap it or use the sanitary napkins or any means to ensure that blood will not leak. Then, she must perform wudu' for every prayer time and pray. Likewise is the ruling of one with urinary incontinence and the likes. • And if the bleeding continued in the other months, then: − If she has a habit, then her hayd is like her habit. 106 International University in Latin America − If she didn't have a habit, but has the ability to discern - if some of her blood is black and thick and some is red and thin - then her hayd is the period of the flow of that which is black and thick. Some scholars give precedence to discerning over the habit. − And if she was a beginner or forgot her habit and had no ability to discern, then her hayd is six or seven days out of each month, since that is the customary period for most women. • The pregnant woman doesn't menstruate unless she sees the blood a day or two or three before her delivery, then it is postpartum bleeding (nifaas). • Postpartum bleeding is the blood flowing out because of childbirth. − Its ruling is like that of hayd with regard to the things permissible, required, forbidden and dropped. − Its longest duration is forty days, and there is no limit for the shortest. − Once a woman sees the tuhr (purity = cessation of bleeding), she must perform major ablution and she then becomes pure. − And if it returns within the period of forty days, it would still be considered nifaas. 107 International University in Latin America Self-assessment Questions Essay Questions: 1. State the difference between menstruation and postpartum bleeding.