Different colour discharges during haidh

Q: My question is the following: When I embraced Islam I was explained that end of the period is when you see no more reddish discharges. Then after some years I met one young hanafi alim and she told me that there are different ways how to determine end of the period. First is, if during your normal days you have no discharges (yellow or white, etc), then when you have your period you must wait for all discharges to finish, no matter they are reddish or just yellow or white etc, but within 10 days only. Second is, if you during your normal days you have some discharges, then you determine end of your period when you see such discharge, meaning if during normal days you have yellow-white discharges, then as soon as you see the same color of discharges close to you period, let’s say after reddish discharges, then as soon as you see them you can take ghusl and start salah. When I received all this information I choose option number 1, because I thought I had no discharges during normal days. I am quite sure I tried to be very careful about my decision on which way to choose. But now, after a year and a half and am looking back and having doubts. I remember that last Ramadan I was inserting cotton balls inside (I didn’t know at that time that it breaks ones fasting and one alim told me I don’t have to repeat my fasts) before every salah. I am thinking now trying to remember why I was doing it. If I was doing it because I was afraid to have discharges during salah and avoid to make new wudu all the time then does it mean I have to count how many salahs I missed due to wrong determination of the end of my period? Because obviously I missed few days if I was waiting for 10 days to let all discharges pass, even yellow, even white… But the thing is, I am not sure anymore why I was inserting cotton balls, I think it was to prevent discharges of desire to break my wudu, because I am not married and could have them anytime even if one sexual thought passed my mind for a second, I think I was mixing normal lubrication with discharge of desire and was securing myself too much with cotton balls. Having almost all the time cotton balls inside 5 times a day it probably didn’t give me opportunity to see if I had normal discharges during that time so that I could determine end of my period differently. But even here I am not sure, because obviously for night I was taking them out (even though at night usually no discharge appear because simply they don’t flow good in a sleeping position, but still can happen when they are there), so I really don’t remember how often I had the balls inside, the reason and was I determining my end of period correctly or not, I also don’t remember for how long all this happened, years or months. So what should I do know, should I start making qazas for salahs I might have missed? And how to count how many in case I have to do it?

A: All colours of discharge will be counted as haidh provided they are seen within the 10 day period of haidh.

And Allah Ta'ala (الله تعالى) knows best.

 

Answered by:

Mufti Ebrahim Salejee (Isipingo Beach)