What Is the Ruling of the Blood That Flows after the Womb Is Scraped?
Shafi'i Fiqh
Answered by Shaykh Irshaad Sedick
Question
What is the ruling of the blood that flows after the womb is scraped, both for after a miscarriage and for other than a miscarriage? Is the blood considered as menstruation (hayd), postpartum bleeding (nifas), or chronic bleeding (istihada)?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful and Compassionate.
In the Shafiʿi school, prayer and fasting remain obligatory on a woman who bleeds after a womb scrape with no miscarriage, because this blood takes the rulings of chronic bleeding. After a miscarriage, the bleeding is postpartum bleeding, counted from when the womb is emptied of the pregnancy.
After a Miscarriage, the Bleeding Is Postpartum Bleeding
If she miscarried a fetus, even one at the stage of a clot (alaqa) or a lump of flesh (mudgha), the blood after it is postpartum bleeding. [Baʿishn, Bushra al-Karim; Ibn Hajar, Tuhfat al-Muhtaj]
It begins once the womb is emptied of the whole pregnancy. If the miscarriage was complete before the scrape, she counts from when it left the womb; if part of it remained and the scrape removed it, she counts from the scrape. [Baʿishn, Bushra al-Karim]
Blood that flows with the miscarriage itself, before the womb is emptied, is neither menstruation nor postpartum bleeding. It is corrupted blood (dam fasad), which takes the rulings of chronic bleeding explained below, unless it joins onto a period that was already under way. [Ramli, Nihayat al-Muhtaj]
Postpartum bleeding lasts at most sixty days, and usually forty. If the bleeding only begins fifteen days or more after the womb was emptied, it isn’t postpartum bleeding. [Baʿishn, Bushra al-Karim]
Bleeding from the Scrape Alone Is Chronic Bleeding
Bleeding caused by the procedure is not menstruation. Imam Shafiʿi states that blood a woman sees after the age of nine is menstruation, unless it comes from something that afflicted her private area, such as a wound. [Shafiʿi, al-Umm] Menstruation is blood of natural disposition that flows in health, without an outside cause. [Shirbini, Mughni al-Muhtaj] The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said of blood that wouldn’t stop, “That is only a vein, and it is not menstruation.” [Bukhari]
This is corrupted blood, and in the school corrupted blood takes the same rulings as chronic bleeding. Imam Rafiʿi states that the rulings do not differ, and Imam Nawawi records this as the well-known position. [Rafiʿi, al-ʿAziz; Nawawi, al-Majmuʿ; Baʿishn, Bushra al-Karim]
She Prays and Fasts Through Chronic Bleeding
Chronic bleeding is a continuous state of minor ritual impurity, like urinary incontinence. It does not prevent prayer or fasting. [Nawawi, Minhaj al-Talibin] For each obligatory prayer:
One. After the prayer’s time enters, she washes the area.
Two. If she needs it to hold back the blood, she packs it with cotton and binds it, unless the packing harms her. On a day she is keeping an obligatory fast, she doesn’t pack it and relies on the binding alone. [Shirbini, Mughni al-Muhtaj]
Three. She then makes wudu and prays without unnecessary delay. [Nawawi, Minhaj al-Talibin]
Four. Each wudu is for one obligatory prayer, together with whatever voluntary prayers she wishes. [Shirbini, Mughni al-Muhtaj]
Her husband may be intimate with her during this bleeding. [Baʿishn, Bushra al-Karim] If her usual monthly period arrives while she is still bleeding, she should ask a scholar with the details of her habit and timing, since the ruling depends on them.
Allah Most High says, “Allah does not tax any soul but what it can bear.” [Quran 2:286; Keller, The Quran Beheld] May Allah grant her ease and accept her prayer and fasting through this time.
And Allah knows best.
Shaykh Irshaad Sedick
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
النصوص · Source-Texts
[باعشن، بشرى الكريم]
«والنفاس … الدم الخارج أوله قبل خمسة عشر يوما بعد فراغ الرحم من جميع الولد، ولو علقة أو مضغة فيها صورة خفية … وأكثره زمنا ستون يوما، وغالبه أربعون يوما»
[ابن حجر الهيتمي، تحفة المحتاج]
«وأقل النفاس وهو الدم الخارج بعد فراغ جميع الرحم وإن وضعت علقة أو مضغة»
[الرملي، نهاية المحتاج]
«والنفاس الدم الخارج بعد فراغ الرحم من الحمل، فخرج بذلك دم الطلق والخارج مع الولد فليس بحيض لكونه من آثار الولادة، ولا نفاس لتقدمه على خروج الولد، بل هو دم فساد، إلا أن يتصل بحيضها المتقدم فإنه يكون حيضا»
[الشافعي، الأم]
«ومتى رأت الدم بعد التسع سنين فهو حيض إلا أن تراه من شيء أصابها في فرجها من جرح أو …»
[الشربيني، مغني المحتاج]
«وشرعا دم جبلة أي تقتضيه الطباع السليمة يخرج من أقصى رحم المرأة بعد بلوغها على سبيل الصحة من غير سبب في أوقات معلومة»
[البخاري]
«إنما ذلك عرق وليس بالحيضة»
[الرافعي، العزيز]
«الاستحاضة قد يعبر بها عن كل دم تراه المرأة غير دمي الحيض والنفاس … ويسمى ما عدا ذلك دم فساد، لكن الأحكام المذكورة في جميع ذلك لا تختلف»
[النووي، المجموع]
«ففيها وجهان حكاهما صاحب الحاوي والبحر: أحدهما أنها كالمستحاضة في جميع الأحكام السابقة … والمشهور أنها كالمستحاضة»
[باعشن، بشرى الكريم]
«والاستحاضة دم علة يخرج من عرق فمه في أدنى الرحم، وتنحصر بأنها الدم الخارج في غير أوقات الحيض والنفاس … والاستحاضة حدث دائم فلا يمنع شيئا مما يمتنع بالحيض من نحو صلاة ووطء ولو مع جريان الدم»
[النووي، منهاج الطالبين]
«والاستحاضة حدث دائم كالسلس فلا تمنع الصوم والصلاة، فتغسل المستحاضة فرجها وتعصبه وتتوضأ وقت الصلاة وتبادر بها … ويجب الوضوء لكل فرض»
[الشربيني، مغني المحتاج]
«فإن احتاجت في رفع الدم أو تقليله إلى حشو بنحو قطن، وهي مفطرة ولم تتأذ به وجب عليها أن تحشو قبل الشد … أما إذا كانت صائمة أو تأذت باجتماعه فلا يجب عليها الحشو، بل يلزم الصائمة تركه إذا كان صومها فرضا»
[المصدر نفسه]
«وخرج بالفرض النفل فلها أن تتنفل ما شاءت بوضوء»
Shaykh Irshaad Sedick was raised in South Africa in a traditional Muslim family. He graduated from Dar al-Ulum al-Arabiyyah al-Islamiyyah in Strand, Western Cape, under the guidance of the late world-renowned scholar, Shaykh Taha Karaan.
Shaykh Irshaad received Ijaza from many luminaries of the Islamic world, including Shaykh Taha Karaan, Mawlana Yusuf Karaan, and Mawlana Abdul Hafeez Makki, among others.
He is the author of the text “The Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal: A Hujjah or not?” He has served as the Director of the Discover Islam Centre and Al Jeem Foundation. For the last five years till present, he has served as the Khatib of Masjid Ar-Rashideen, Mowbray, Cape Town.
Shaykh Irshaad has thirteen years of teaching experience at some of the leading Islamic institutes in Cape Town). He is currently building an Islamic online learning and media platform called ‘Isnad Academy’ and pursuing his Master’s degree in the study of Islam at the University of Johannesburg. He has a keen interest in healthy living and fitness.
