Menses continues for 18 days then has purity for 15 what to do
Asalamu alaikum
What does a woman do if her menses continues for 18 days then has a purity interval of more than 15 days? Does she consider her habit to be 15 days and day 16, 17, and 18 are considered istihada OR does she have to distinguish the colours of blood from day 1 through 18?
My confusion is whether the rule of distinguishing blood only applies to someone who sees blood continuously with no 15 day interval of purity or does this apply to someone like the above case. I pray you have a chance to answer this question because it happens to many women.
Thank you
Answer:
الحمد لله رب العالمين ، وصلى الله على سيدنا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين، وبالله التوفيق
When a woman is muʿtādah (she experienced haid) and she experiences menstrual bleeding that continues for 18 days without any intermittent period of non-bleeding and ceases for more than 15 days;
أو معتادة بأن سبق لها حيض وطهر فترد إليهما قدرا ووقتا وتثبت بمرة في الأصح المنهاج: 1: 136
If there is no variation in the strength of blood, she should differentiate between menstruation and the bleeding by referring to the last normal haid cycle. For example, her last haid is 5 days followed by 25 days of purity, therefore, she should consider the first 5 days of bleeding to be haid and the next 25 days to be purity.
ويحكم للمعتادة المميزة بالتمييز لا العادة في الأصح المنهاج: 1: 136
If there is variation in the strength of blood, she should classify her bleeding as either menstruation or purity based on its strength. For example, a woman who sees 10 days of red blood followed by 8 days of yellow discharge will consider the days of strong bleeding (i.e., red blood) to be menstruation and the 8 days of weak bleeding (i.e. yellow discharge) to be purity.
And Allah 
Most High knows best.
Answered by:
Abdullah Muḥammad al-Marbūqī al-Shāfiʿī
Checked by:
Al-Ustaz Najib bin Anuar al-Shāfiʿī
Im a bit confused by the answer. My understanding is that if a lady usualy has hayd for 7 days, and this month she gets it for 10 days then the 3 days will be istihaadah.is this right
Assalamua’laikum.
There has been a dispute among scholars about the maximum limit of menses. In the Quran it only stated “until they become clean” (2:222), showing that no clear numbers were given, but rather, whether she is pure or otherwise depends on herself to self-justify.
However, most scholars say 15 days is the maximum limit for menses. So anything that flows more than 15 days is considered istihadhah.
As of your question, a lady with menses for 10 days is still considered within “normal”, if we refer to the 15 day maximum limit opinion. Thus, she should accept the fact that her menses as 10 days now.
If say a woman who originally has 7 days of menses, then becoming 17 days. Thus in this case she should refer to her original 7 days as the cut-off point, the rest are all istihadhah.
That’s all from what I understand about this issue. Just sharing, I’m not an expert, so I may be wrong. Do counter-check with the experts. Thanks.
Allah
knows best.