Nifas
514. From the time when the child birth takes place, the blood seen by the mother is Nifas, provided that it stops before or on completion of the tenth day. While in the condition of Nifas, a woman is called Nafsa.
515. The blood which a mother sees before the appearance of the first limb of the child is not Nifas.
516. 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 Nifas. The term 'Child birth' must be applicable to it.
517. It is possible that Nifas blood may be discharged for an instant only, but it never exceeds 10 days.
518. 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 Nifas.
519. On the basis of precaution, halting or pausing in a masjid and other acts which are haraam for a Haaez are also haraam for a Nafsa and those acts which are obligatory for a Haaez are also obligatory for a Nafsa.
520. Divorcing a woman who is in the state of Nifas and having sexual intercourse with her is haraam. However, if her husband has sexual intercourse with her it does not involve any Kaffara.
521. When a woman becomes Pak from Nifas, she should do Ghusl and perform
acts of worship. And if she sees blood again, once or often, and the total number
of days on which blood is seen and the intervening days during which she remains
Pak is 10 or less than 10, then all of it will be Nifas.
In the intervening days, as a precaution, she will perform all that is obligatory
for a Pak woman and also refrain from all acts which are forbidden to a woman
in Nifas. So, if she had kept fasts, she will give their Qadha. And if the blood
which she saw later exceeds ten days then there can be two situations:
if the woman does not have a fixed habit of duration, then she will count the first ten days as Nifas, and the rest as Istihaza.
and if she has fixed habit of duration, then, as a precaution, the blood which she sees after the habitual days of duration will require her to act as a Mustahaza, and also avoid all that is forbidden to a woman in Nifas.
522. If a woman becomes Pak from Nifas, but feels that there might be blood in the interior part, she should insert some cotton, and wait till she finds out. If she finds herself Pak then she should do Ghusl for the acts of worship.
523. If Nifas blood is seen by a mother for more than 10 days and she
has a fixed habit of Hayz, then her Nifas will be equal to the duration of Hayz
and the rest would be Istihaza. And, if she does not have a fixed habit of Hayz,
she would take ten days as those of Hayz, and treat the rest as Istihaza.
For a woman who has a fixed habit of Hayz, it is a recommended precaution to
act as a Mustahaza from the day after her habit is over, and at the same time
refrain from acts forbidden to one in Nifas till 18th day. And for a woman with
no fixed habit of Hayz, this recommended precaution applies from the tenth to
the eighteenth day since the child birth.
524. If the habit of Hayz of a woman is less than 10 days and blood
is seen for more days than the days of her Hayz, she should treat the days equal
to the days of her Hayz as Nifas. After that, she has a choice either to leave
out her Namaz or act according to the rules of Istihaza, but it is better to
leave out Namaz for a day. And if the blood continues to be seen even after
10 days, then all the days in excess of her habit, upto the tenth day, will
be Istihaza and she should give Qadha of the acts of worship which she did not
perform during those days.
For example, if the Hayz duration of a woman has always been 6 days and her
blood comes for more than 6 days, she should treat 6 days as Nifas and on the
7th, 8th, 9th and 10th day, it will be her choice either to abstain from all
acts of worship or adopt the rules of Istihaza. And if she sees blood for more
than ten days, all the days in excess of her habitual duration of Hayz will
be treated as the days of Istihaza.
525. If a woman, with a fixed habit of Hayz sees blood continuously
for a month or more after giving birth to a child, the blood seen for the days
equal to her Hayz habit will be Nifas, and the blood seen after that for ten
days will be Istihaza, even if it coincides with the dates of her monthly Hayz.
For example, there is a woman whose fixed Hayz 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 Nifas will be seven days, equal to her Hayz days, and
will be from 10th to 17th of that month; now, the blood which she continues
to see from the 17th onwards for ten days will be Istihaza, even though it falls
in her days of Hayz habit.
After the lapse of 10 days, if bleeding continues, then it is Hayz if it falls
in the days of habit, irrespective of whether it has the signs of Hayz or not.
And if bleeding does not occur in the days of Hayz habit, she will wait till
the days of her habit, even if it means waiting for a month or more and even
if blood has the signs of Hayz.
And if she has no fixed habit of commencement time of Hayz, she should make
an effort to recognise her Hayz by its signs; and if that is not possible, because
the blood seen after Nifas remains of one type for a month or more, then she
will adopt the habit prevailing among her relatives to determine the days of
Hayz.
And, if that also is not possible, then she has an option of fixing her days
of Hayz. These details have been dealt with in the discussions about Hayz.
526. If a woman does not have a fixed habit of duration, and if after giving birth she sees blood continuously for a month or more, the rules contained in no. 523 will apply to the first 10 days; and as for the next 10 days it is Istihaza. And as regards the blood seen thereafter, it can be either Hayz or Istihaza, and in order to ascertain whether it is Hayz, she will follow the rule stated in the foregoing clause.