Menstruation and Postnatal Bleeding

Ḥayḍ — menstruation:

- Minimum duration: there's no fixed minimum in the Mālikī school; even a brief bleed counts if it has the characteristics of menstrual blood. - Maximum duration: 15 days. Bleeding beyond this is *istiḥāḍa* (irregular non-menstrual bleeding), which has different rulings — prayer and fasting resume. - Minimum time of purity between periods: 15 days. - Telling a new period from leftover bleeding: by the color (deep red or black, the way menstrual blood looks), and by the timing.

Nifās — postnatal bleeding:

- No minimum duration — if bleeding stops quickly, ghusl is performed and worship resumes. - Maximum: 60 days in the Mālikī school. Beyond 60 days, any continuing bleeding is *istiḥāḍa*.

During ḥayḍ and nifās, the following are paused: - Ṣalāh (prayer) — and *the prayers do NOT need to be made up* afterward. This is a specific mercy of the religion: the woman is not in deficit for missed prayers during her period (al-Bukhārī 321). - Ṣawm (fasting) — but missed fasts of Ramaḍān are made up later, after the period (al-Bukhārī 321). - Ṭawāf (circumambulation in Ḥajj/ʿUmra). - Touching a muṣḥaf (the physical written Qurʾān). - Reciting Qurʾān aloud — though Mālikī practice has flexibility for teachers and students who need to recite to teach. - Sexual intercourse (Qurʾān 2:222). - Entering the prayer area of the masjid.

What is NOT paused during ḥayḍ and nifās: - Duʿāʾ — supplication. She prays continuously to Allah in her own words. - Dhikr — remembrance of Allah, *subḥān Allāh*, *al-ḥamdulillāh*, *Allāhu akbar*. - Listening to the Qurʾān being recited. - Reading Qurʾān from a phone or screen — many contemporary scholars allow this since the device is not a muṣḥaf. - Attending an Islamic class or lecture. - All ordinary acts of life — eating, working, caring for family, going out.

After bleeding ends: 1. Confirm the bleeding has fully stopped (some women check with a tissue or cotton). 2. Perform ghusl (full ritual bath, see chapter 5.5). 3. Resume prayer with the next prayer due. 4. Make up any fasts missed during Ramadan after Ramadan ends.

A word on framing. Don't let anyone — man or woman — frame menstruation as a "spiritual loss." The Prophet ﷺ explicitly told women that their inability to pray during their period is part of the religion as Allah designed it, not a deficiency. ʿĀʾisha used to spend her ḥayḍ days reading, listening, making duʿāʾ, and being present with her family — all worship.