Hayd — Menstruation

Hayd is one of the most important chapters of fiqh.

The saying “There is no modesty in religion” is a corrupt phrase that should not be said; for religion contains modesty — some of it blameworthy and some of it praiseworthy. Among the blameworthy modesty is modesty in seeking knowledge.

The bloods that exit a woman's private part are of three types: hayd (menstruation), nifas (postnatal bleeding), and istihada. This chapter is about hayd.

Definition of hayd:

- Linguistically: the flowing (*al-sayalān*), from their saying *ḥāḍa al-wādī idhā sāla* — the valley flowed when it streamed.

- Technically (*ʿurfan*): it is blood, or yellowness (*ṣufra*), or turbidity (*kudra*), that exits by itself from the front passage (*qubul*) of a woman of childbearing habit.

- Blood: black; it is the primary kind, which most commonly exits in menstruation.

- Ṣufra (yellowness): something like pus (*ṣadīd*) over which there is yellowness.

- Kudra (turbidity): something muddy or cloudy, not like the colours of blood — that is, neither pure white nor black, but between the two.

- The phrase “exits by itself” excludes (*iḥtirāz*) the blood of nifas, and excludes the blood of istihada, because it exits due to a defect in the body.

- Blood may exit from a young girl before 9 years, and this is not menstrual blood; or from a despairing woman (*āʾisa*) who has reached 70. A woman may reach 70 and still have menstrual blood, but usually after 50.

Duration of hayd:

- There is no minimum for it in the Mālikī school: the least that can be called hayd in matters of worship may be a single gush (*dafqa*) and then it stops.

- Its maximum, in general, is 15 days; if the blood continues more than 15 days it is not counted as hayd.

Women during the period of hayd are of three types: a beginner (*mubtadaʾa*), one with an established habit (*muʿtāda*), and a pregnant woman (*ḥāmil*).

- The maximum days of hayd for the beginner: 15 days; whatever comes down after that is istihada blood, and she must perform ghusl, pray, fast, and may have intercourse.

- The maximum days of hayd for the one with a habit: three days of *istiẓhār* (precaution) added to her maximum habit, as long as it does not exceed 15 days; whatever comes after that is istihada and ghusl is obligatory on her, and these days become her new habit.

- Example: a woman whose habit is 8 days, with 3 days of istiẓhār; on day 9 blood still comes, and likewise day 10, so it is menstrual blood. If the blood stops on day 10, she measures her new habit at 10, and she adds 3 days of istiẓhār.

- Another example: if her first habit was 8 and it then became 10, she thereafter measures by 10.

- The maximum hayd for a pregnant woman changes according to the length of the pregnancy:

- Before entering month 3: she is like a non-pregnant woman (either muʿtāda or mubtadaʾa).

- From 3 to 6 months: her maximum hayd is 20 days.

- From 6 to 9 months: her maximum hayd is 30 days.

- And from the beginning of the third month, one no longer speaks of three days of istiẓhār.

Ṭuhr (purity): it is the cessation of the blood of hayd and nifas, and it has signs.

- The minimum complete purity separating two menstruations (for all women) is 15 days; whoever sees blood after it, it is a new, freshly begun hayd.

- The maximum purity: it has no limit by consensus (*ijmāʿ*).

- If the blood stops before her habit is complete, she has become pure (the jurists agreed).

Signs of purity not accompanied by istihada blood:

1. *Al-jufūf* (dryness): that she inserts a cloth or a piece of cotton into her private part and no blood, yellowness, or turbidity comes out; and the moisture from the private part's wetness does not harm her.

2. *Al-qiṣṣa al-bayḍāʾ* (the white discharge): a thin white water that comes at the end of menstruation, resembling lime water; it is stronger and more conclusive than dryness.

When a woman checks her purity:

- The menstruating woman must check her purity at every prayer time, and it becomes tight at its end, except Maghrib and ʿIshāʾ.

- She checks before sleeping, especially in Ramadan; if she becomes pure before Fajr she makes the intention to fast the following day.

- If she was menstruating and doubted when she became pure, her prayer falls away (she does not owe it).

- As for fasting: she fasts that day out of obligation, because of the possibility that the purity occurred before Fajr; and she makes it up, because of the possibility that it was after Fajr.

- A woman is not required to check her purity before Fajr, and it is not recommended, because of the hardship in it.