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.