Jurisprudence Made Easy
Dialogue on Nifas
I’ll talk to you today about nifas.
* What is nifas?
- It is a type of bleeding which occurs after childbirth.
* How long does this bleeding last?
- A maximum of ten days.
* Is there a minimum period for it?
- There is no lower limit for it.
* Does it vary from one woman to another?
- A woman in a state of nifas could fall in one of three categories:
1. The first category is that of a woman whose bleeding does not go
beyond ten days.
* What is the ruling in her case?
- The entire period of bleeding is treated as nifas.
The second category is that of women, who have regular monthly periods
of a duration of, say, five days, and whose bleeding goes beyond ten
days.
* What is the ruling in their case?
- They must treat the duration of nifas as equal to that of a monthly
period, such as in the example I gave earlier on.
* What about the remaining days?
- They should be treated as istihadha.
The third category is that of women, with no regular monthly periods
and no specified number of days, whose bleeding exceeds ten days.
* What is the ruling in their case?
- They must treat ten days only as the duration of nifas.
* Well, suppose a woman in a state of nifas has a fixed monthly
period, and the bleeding exceeded the specified number of days she
usually has her period for. She was unsure whether the bleeding would
stop before or after the ten-day period. What should she do?
- She should abandon all acts of worship until after the lapse of the
ten-day period. If the bleeding stopped, she has to treat the entire
period as nifas. Should the bleeding continue after the tenth day, she
must perform ghusl and uphold the rules applicable to a woman in a state
of istihadha.
* What about the intervening period between the end of her monthly
period and the duration that completes the ten days during which she
abandoned the acts of worship?
- She must treat it as istihadha and perform those acts of worship,
she missed, in lieu.
* If the bleeding was intermittent during the ten-day period, how
should it be treated?
- The first bleeding and the second one are considered nifas.
* How do you, though, describe the intervening tahir period?
- [She should combine those acts of worship a tahir woman should
perform and those she should abandon during nifas].
* If the total period of bleeding does not exceed ten days, but the
bleeding is of an intermittent nature, how should the woman go about
it?
- All the days that she had the blood should be treated as nifas. As
for the intervening periods, when she had no blood, [she should combine
the acts of worship as if she were tahir and refrain from those acts as
if she were in a state of nifas].
* What is the ruling in the case of a woman who completed the ten-day
period, only to start bleeding again?
- Any type of blood that appears after the ten-day period, be it that
which satisfies the criteria of haydh or otherwise and whether it
coincided with her monthly period, should be treated as istihadha.
* What are the rules that should be upheld in the case of a woman in
a state of nifas?
- All that which a woman in a state of haydh can or cannot do is
applicable to a woman in a state of nifas. There is no difference
whether the acts of worship were obligatory or voluntary, makrouh or
haraam [even non-permissibility of reciting the Ayas of Sajdah of
Chapters of Azaa’im (The four verses, of Iqra’, an-Najm, as-Sajdah, and
Fussilat, in the Holy Qur’an, as it is obligatory to perform prostration
when they are read or heard), admission to The Holy Mosques in Mekkah
and Medina - albeit by way of passing through them, entering and staying
in other mosques and leaving anything inside. You may refer to the
Dialogue on Haydh.