From Marriage to Parenthood The Heavenly Path
Chapter 10: Important Fiqh Rules 2 , For Mothers
Nifās
What is Nifās?
From the time when the child birth takes place, the blood seen by the mother is Nifās, provided that it stops before or on completion of the tenth day. While in the condition of Nifās, a woman is called Nafsa.
The blood which a mother sees before the appearance of the first limb of the child is not Nifās.[^1]
It is possible that Nifās blood may be discharged for an instant only, but it never exceeds 10 days.[^2]
It is not necessary that the baby is fully grown. Even if a deficient baby is born, the blood seen by the mother for ten days will be Nifās. The term ‘child birth’ must be applicable to it.[^3]
If a woman doubts whether she has aborted something or not, or whether the thing aborted is a child or not, it is not necessary for her to investigate, and the blood which is discharged in this situation is not Nifās.[^4]
Things which are obligatory and forbidden for someone in the state of Nifās
On the basis of precaution, halting or pausing in a Masjid and other acts which are forbidden for a ĥāidh (a woman in the condition of ĥaydh) are also forbidden for a Nafsa and those acts which are obligatory for a ĥāidh are also obligatory for a Nafsa.[^5]
How long does Nifās last?
It is possible that Nifās blood may be discharged for an instant only, but it never exceeds 10 days. Depending on the normal habit of the woman’s ĥaydh, the rules of the length of Nifās differ as follows[^6]:
1. For a woman who has a fixed habit of ĥaydh:
a. Her Nifās will be equal to then normal duration of ĥaydh.
b. If her habit is less than ten days, after this time she has a choice
to leave out her Ŝalāt until ten days, or act as a mustahadha (a woman
in the condition of istihadha); however, it is better to leave out Ŝalāt
for one day (in addition to the regular number of days she had a period
for before pregnancy).
c. If, however, the blood continues to be seen even after ten days, then
all they days after the normal duration of ĥaydh, until the 10th day,
will be istihadha, and she should give Qadha of the acts of worship not
performed during this time upto the 10th day (as she will have followed
the rulings of istihadha after the 10th day anyway).
d. When acting as a mustahadha, she must refrain from acts forbidden to
a Nafsa as well until the 18th day.
Example: If the ĥaydh duration of a woman has always been six days and her blood comes for more than six days, she should treat six days as Nifās and on the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th day, (if the bleeding does not exceed ten days) it will be her choice either to abstain from all acts of worship or adopt the rules of istihadha. If, however, she sees blood for more than ten days, all the days in excess of her habitual duration of ĥaydh will be treated as the days of istihadha and qaďā will have to be offered for Ŝalāt missed if she chose to abstain from all acts of worship on the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th day.
2. For a woman who does not have a fixed habit of ĥaydh
a. Her Nifās will be ten days, and the rest will be istiĥādha.
b. It is a recommended precaution that while acting as a mustahadha, to
refrain from acts forbidden to a nafsa from the 10th to the 18th day.
When the period of Nifās is over[^7]
When a woman becomes ritually clean from Nifās, she should do Ghusl and
perform acts of worship. If she sees blood again, once or often, there
are two possibilities:
- The total number of days on which blood is seen immediately after childbirth and the intervening days during which she remains ritually clean is 10 days or less than 10 days, then all of it will be Nifās.
In the intervening days, as a precaution, she will perform all that is obligatory for a ritually clean woman and also refrain from all acts which are forbidden to a woman in Nifās. So, if she had kept fasts, she will give their qaďā.
- If the blood which she saw later exceeds ten days then again, the rules differ depending on the normal habit of the woman’s ĥaydh:
a. For a woman who has a fixed habit of ĥaydh
As a precaution, she should consider the blood seen after the normal ĥaydh duration to be istiĥādha; therefore she should act as a mustahadha, and also avoid all that is forbidden to a nafsa.
b. For a woman who does not have a fixed habit of ĥaydh
She should count the first ten days as Nifās, and the rest as
istiĥādha.
Determining ĥaydh[^8]
The rules of determining a woman’s first ĥaydh after childbirth is
again depending on the normal habit of the woman’s ĥaydh:
1. For a woman who has a fixed habit of ĥaydh:
a. If blood is seen continuously for a month or more after giving birth to a child, the blood seen for the days equal to her ĥaydh habit will be Nifās, and the blood seen after that for ten days will be istiĥādha, even if it coincides with the dates of her monthly ĥaydh.
b. After the lapse of ten days of istiĥādha, if bleeding continues, then it is ĥaydh if it falls in the days of habit, irrespective of whether it has the signs of ĥaydh[^9] or not. If bleeding does not occur in the days of ĥaydh habit, she should wait until the days of her habit, even if it means waiting for a month or more and even if blood has the signs of ĥaydh.
Example: A woman has a fixed ĥaydh habit is from 20th to 27th of every month. She gives birth on the 10th of a given month, and she continues to see blood for a month or more; her Nifās will be seven days, equal to her ĥaydh days, and will be from 10th to 17th of that month; now, the blood which she continues to see from the 17th to the 27th, i.e. for ten days, will be istiĥādha even though it falls in her days of ĥaydh habit.
c. If she has no fixed habit of commencement time of ĥaydh, she should make an effort to recognise her ĥaydh by its signs, and if that is not possible (because the blood seen after Nifās often remains of one type for a month or more), then she should adopt the habit prevailing among her blood relatives (mother, sisters, etc.) to determine the days of ĥaydh. If that also is not possible, then she has an option of fixing her days of ĥaydh.[^10]
2. For a woman who does not have a fixed habit of ĥaydh
a. As explained earlier, the blood seen for the first ten days will be treated as Nifās, and as for the next ten days it will be istiĥādha. The blood seen thereafter can be either ĥaydh or istiĥādha, and in order to ascertain whether it is ĥaydh, she should follow the rule as above, i.e. recognise ĥaydh by its signs, by the prevailing habit among relatives, or fixing her own days of ĥaydh.
Baby’s Urine
Making things ritually clean from the urine of a suckling child
If anything becomes najis with the urine of a suckling child, who has not yet started taking solid food, and, as a precaution, is less than two years old, the thing will be ritually clean if water is poured over it once, reaching all parts which had been najis. As a recommended precaution, water should be poured over it once again. If it is a carpet or dress, etc. it will not be necessary to squeeze it.[^11]
[^1]: Islamic Laws, Rule 515
[^2]: Islamic Laws, Rule 517
[^3]: Islamic Laws, Rule 516
[^4]: Islamic Laws, Rule 518
[^5]: Islamic Laws, Rule 519
[^6]: Islamic Laws, Rule 523, 524, 525, 526
[^7]: Islamic Laws, Rule 520
[^8]: Islamic Laws, Rule 525
[^9]: Signs of ĥaydh: Usually thick and warm and its colour is either black or red. It is discharged with a pressure and a little irritation.
[^10]: Please refer to the ĥaydh section of the Risālah for more information.
[^11]: Islamic Laws, Rule 162