Ruling 489. If a mubtadiʾah, muḍṭaribah, nāsiyah, or a woman with a habit of duration experiences bleeding and the blood has the attributes of ḥayḍ, or if she is certain that her bleeding will last for three days, she must refrain from engaging in ritual acts of worship. In the event that she realises afterwards that it was not ḥayḍ, she must make up the ritual acts of worship that she did not perform.

Ruling 490. If on two consecutive months a woman with a habit of ḥayḍ – whether it be a habit of time, duration, or both – experiences bleeding that is contrary to her habit and her bleeding in both months is the same in terms of its time, duration, or both, her habit will change to what she has observed in these two months. For example, if she used to experience bleeding from the first day of the month to the seventh and then her bleeding would stop, then in the event that in two consecutive months she experiences bleeding from the tenth to the seventeenth of the month and then her bleeding stops, her habit will change and be from the tenth to the seventeenth.

Ruling 491. The meaning of ‘one month’ – except with regard to determining the habit of time – is the passing of thirty days from the start of bleeding and not from the first day of the month to the last. With regard to determining the habit of time, the lunar month is intended, not the solar.

Ruling 492. If a woman who usually experiences bleeding once a month experiences bleeding twice in one month, then in the event that the number of days on which her bleeding stops in between is not less than ten, she must consider both bleedings to be ḥayḍ even if one of them does not have the attributes of ḥayḍ.

Ruling 493. With regard to a woman who must distinguish ḥayḍ by means of differences observed in the attributes of her bleeding, if she experiences bleeding for three or more days and it has the attributes of ḥayḍ, and if afterwards she experiences bleeding for ten days or more and it has the attributes of istiḥāḍah, and if she then experiences bleeding again for three days and this has the attributes of ḥayḍ, then she must consider the first and last bleeding – which had the attributes of ḥayḍ – to be ḥayḍ. However, if she experiences one of the two bleedings during her habit and it is not known whether the ten days in between are all istiḥāḍah or partly ḥayḍ, then the bleeding that she experiences during her habit is ḥayḍ and the rest is istiḥāḍah.

Ruling 494. If a woman’s bleeding stops before ten days and she knows that there is no blood inside, she must perform ghusl for her ritual acts of worship even if she supposes that she will experience bleeding again before the completion of ten days. If she is certain that she will experience bleeding again before the completion of ten days, she must, as stated previously, perform ghusl as a precautionary measure, perform her ritual acts of worship, and refrain from doing the things that are unlawful for a ḥāʾiḍ.

Ruling 495. If a woman’s bleeding stops before ten days and she deems it probable that there is blood inside, she must either perform ritual acts of worship as a precautionary measure or perform istibrāʾ; and it is not permitted for her to refrain from worshipping without performing istibrāʾ. Istibrāʾ here means she must insert some cotton inside the vagina and wait for a short while – and if her habit is such that her bleeding stops for a short while in the middle of ḥayḍ, as it has been said of some women, she must wait for a longer time – then, she must bring the cotton out. If it is clean, she must perform ghusl and perform her ritual acts of worship; and if it is not clean – even if it is stained with a yellow-coloured liquid – then, in the event that she does not have a habit of ḥayḍ, or her habit is ten days, or the days of her habit have not yet finished, she must wait. If her bleeding stops before ten days, she must perform ghusl; and if her bleeding stops on the tenth day or her bleeding lasts for more than ten days, she must perform ghusl on the tenth day. If her habit is less than ten days, then in case she knows that her bleeding will stop before the completion of ten days or on the tenth day, she must not perform ghusl.

Ruling 496. If a woman considers her bleeding on some days to be ḥayḍ and does not perform ritual acts of worship, and afterwards she realises that it was not ḥayḍ, she must make up the prayers and fasts that she missed on those days. If she worships on some days supposing that her bleeding on those days is not ḥayḍ, and afterwards she realises that it was ḥayḍ, then in the event that she had also kept obligatory fasts on those days, she must make them up.