Fatwa, - Menstruation Question: irregular bleeding, ghusl, and then uncertainty�

Question:
A woman gets her period. It last only one day. After that she
getswhite discharge for a day. Many times she bleeds for only one or
two days, so based on this, she takes a ghusl. But since she was
presuming that her period could start again, she waited towards the
end of a prayer time before making her ghusl. Accidentally, she missed
the prayer. Then two days later, she begins bleeding again, and it
lasts for six days. Considering that her period of purity did not last
fifteen days and consequently she is regarded as having bled
continuously all ten days, does she have to make up the prayer she
missed? Secondly, since she is considered to have had her period for
ten days, do any qadas sheprayed during the two days she thought she
was pure count? She understandably began praying and doing qadas
during these days because she had no way of knowing that her period
would begin again so soon.
Answer:
Assalamu alaykum
To answer this and othersimilar questions relatingto menstruation one
needs to keep the basic principles of menstruation in mind. Namely:
The minimum period for menstruation is three days. This means that if
blood is seen for less than three days, it does not count as
menstruation.
The maximum period for menstruation is ten days.This means that if
blood is seen for more than tendays, it does not count asmenstruation.
It is not a condition that blood flow be constant during the menstrual
period. What is important is the first andlast days it flows on and
all that is in between is counted as though bloodflowed though really
it did not. e.g. if she sees blood on the first day and then the
fourth day and then no more blood,this will be treated as four
continuous days of bleeding and will all be treated as menstruation.
The minimum length of apurity period between menstrual periods is fifteen days.
Whatever is seen during the menstrual period is counted as menstrual
blood no matter what colour it is.
[Hashiya al-Tahtawi 'ala Maraqi al-Falah, 1:199, Maktaba al-'Ilm al-Hadith]
Based on these above principles the question can be answered as follows:
When the original bleeding happened she assumed that it was
menstruation and hence did not pray. After one day of bleeding and one
day of white discharge she did not see anything.At this stage she can
assume that the bleedingwas abnormal uterine bleeding (istihada) and
just perform wudu and pray. There was no need for her to perform a
purificatory bath as the bleeding did not last three days and so could
not be treated as menstruation.
Then on the fourth day she saw bleeding again. Since there was not a
sufficient purity period between the two sets of bleeding (as in rule
4 above) all four days weretreated as though there was a constant
blood flow (as in rule 3). This being the case she is certainly
menstruating and any prayers or fasts offered since the first day that
blood was seen are invalid.
The bleeding then lasts for a further six days. If the fourth day is
included this takes us to day nine from first seeing the blood. After
this she would be expected to have a purificatory bath and start
praying.
She is not responsible forany prayers offered during the nine day
period and so would not have to make up the prayer initially missed.
Furthermore, any make up prayers offered during the period were
invalid and must be repeated again.
This is a difficult situation for a lady who has make ups to offer.
Some scholars advise ladies to take it easy with make up prayers in
situations like the one described above where the bleeding stopped
after one or two days and one expects it to start again. If however
the lady in question is such that her heart would not sink if she
found out that her make ups were invalid and it would not affect her
resolve to continue making up her prayers then there is no harm forher
to continue making up prayers according to her usual make up routine
during such periods.
And Allah knows best.