Q: A ladies haidh pattern:
May - 8 days
June - 8 days
July - She had a ghusl on 9th day but bled on 11 and 13th day. So she took the extra day as istihaaza and followed the previous months habit and made qadha of one day salaah.
August - She had ghusl on 9th day and again she bled just over 10 days.
September - She bled just over 10 days. How would she regard her habit and because she is going over 10 days, must she take her habit as 8 days and continue making qadha every month.
A: The minimum period of haidh is three days and the maximum is ten days. If a woman has a set pattern of bleeding, she should follow that pattern. If a woman does not have a set pattern of bleeding, then she should consider the number of days she bled in the previous haidh. Hence if she bled for five days in the previous haidh, then she should consider five days as her cycle. It will be permissible for the husband to have relations with her after five days. However it should be borne in mind that if the bleeding continues for more than the five days but stops within ten days, then in the case where a woman had a set pattern or not, her pattern will change and the entire period will be regarded as haidh. However, if the bleeding surpasses ten days, then she will revert to her last habit (e.g. five days) and she will regard that to be her haidh and the remainder days of bleeding after five days (e.g. till the twelfth day) as istihaaza. She should make qadha of the Salaah missed in the days of istihaaza. For further details regarding the laws of istihaaza refer to http://muftionline.co.za/node/9865
And Allah Ta'ala (الله تعالى) knows best.
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