Fathwa, - Menstruation Started Before She Prayed…

Question:
If a sister is expecting her period anytime... she is doing housework,
or helpingaround the house and time for Salah enters, but she is still
occupied in doing something as useless as watching TV or doing
something important as housework/helping parents etc. so she keeps the
niyah about making her salah before it is Qadah, but eventually when
she goes to make her salahshe finds that she has gotten her period.
Henceforth she cannot make that salah anymore...is this a sin upon
her?...because she could have done it but yet she was occupied... and
she did make the niyah to make the salah before it became Qadah... if
this is a sin depending on what she was doing please explain that as
well
Answer:
Assalamu alaykum
There is no sin upon this lady and she is not expected to make the
prayer up. This is because in menstruation we look to the end of
theprayer time. If she menstruated any time before the end of a
particular prayer time, even if only moments before the beginning of
the next prayer time, then she is not responsible for offering that
particular prayer. It would be just as if she was menstruating for
that entire prayer time. (Ibn Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar, 1:292, 'Ilmiyya)
This is a great mercy from Allah Most High otherwise ladies in such
situations would have to hasten to pray as soon asa prayer time enters
which could clearly be awkward. Conversely thissame principle applies
when a lady's menstruation draws to a close. If the bleeding stops
before the end of aprayer time then one is responsible for offering
that prayer as long as it leaves one with enough time to perform the
ritual bath and to start the obligatory prayer. This means that one
mustbe careful to check before the end of a prayer time for the
cessation of bleeding if one is expecting the bleeding to end so that
one may hasten to pray before the end of a prayer time.
And Allah knows best.