Haydh Part 3

Women having the habit of time only

Women having the habit of time are of two types:

* A woman who sees blood in each of the two consecutive months on a given day, and then becomes clean after a few days. The duration of blood varies in each month. For example, if the blood is seen on the 1st of each month but stops on the 7th in the first month and on the 8th in the second month, her habit of time will be the first of every month.

* A woman who sees blood in two consecutive months on a given day, for, say 3 or more days and then it stops and thereafter is seen again, but the total number of days does not exceed ten days. However, the number of days during the 2nd month is either more or less than the days in the 1st month.

For example, if the blood is seen on the 1st day of each of the two consecutive months but the total duration of days is 8 in the 1st month and 9 in the 2nd month, she should treat the 1st of the month to be her habit of time. 

- If a woman who has the habit of time but the duration of her Haydh is not constant, sees blood on her habitual time or two or three days earlier, she will treat herself as Haaez.

But if the blood is seen much earlier, so much so that it would not be considered as customary, or if she sees it very late, she will treat herself as Haaez if the blood bears the signs of Haydh. Similarly, she will consider it as Haydh if she is sure that the bleeding will continue for three days, even if the blood bears no semblance of Haydh. 
And if she is not sure whether this sort of bleeding will last for three days or not, then as per obligatory precaution, she will do all those acts which are wajib for a Mustahadha, and refrain from all those acts which are forbidden to Haaez. 

- If a woman with the fixed habit of time sees blood on her habitual time for more than 10 days and if she is unable to determine the exact duration of Haydh from its signs, then as a precaution, she will follow the habit of her paternal or maternal relatives, irrespective of whether they are living or dead; provided that: 

The state of her relative does not differ sharply from her state. She, as a young and active person, cannot compare with the habit of an old lady, or the one nearing menopause. 

She does not compare herself to a woman in her family whose habit is totally different from the habit of the others in the family. 

The above rule also applies to a woman of fixed habit of time who fails to see blood on time, and sees it out of the days of her habit for more than 10 days and is unable to discern from the signs. 

- A woman with fixed habit of time cannot shift her Haydh to any period outside her habitual time. Therefore, if her commencing time is fixed on the first of every month, with a varying duration of five or six days, and then suddenly she sees blood for twelve days, and she is unable to recognize the signs to determine the duration of Haydh, she will take the first day of the month as the beginning and as for the duration, she will resort to the foregoing rule.  

And if she is aware of her final or middle days of habit, and if the total number of days exceeds ten, she will arrange the duration of Haydh in such a manner that her final or middle days fall within the habitual time. 

- If a woman with a fixed habit of time sees blood for more than ten days, and is unable to determine the nature of blood as explained in rule previously, then she will be free to decide upon any number of days which she feels could be her days of Haydh. It is recommended that she fixes seven days, and by so doing she must keep in mind her habit of commencement, as mentioned in the foregoing rules. 

 Women having the habit of fixed duration

Women having the habit of duration are of two types:

- A woman whose duration of Haydh in two consecutive months is same but the commencing times differ. In such circumstances her habit of duration will be the number of days during which blood is seen. For example, if blood is seen from the 1st to the 5th of the 1st month and from the 11th to the 15th of the 2nd month her duration habit will be 5 days.

A woman who sees blood in two consecutive months for 3 or more days, and then it stops for a day or two before it starts again, though the time of commencement of blood varies in the 2nd month from that of the 1st, her duration habit will be the number of days during which blood is seen, provided that the total number of the bleeding and Clean days does not exceed ten and that the duration period in both the months remains equal.

As a measure of precaution, in the intervening days, she will do all that is obligatory upon a lady who is Clean, and also refrain from all those acts which a Haaez is forbidden to do. For example, if during the 1st month she sees blood from the 1st to the 3rd day and then it stops for 2 days and then sees again for 3 days, and in the 2nd month she sees it from the 11th to the 13th and then it stops for 2 days and then sees it her duration habit will be six days.

And if the duration in two consecutive months is not constant, like, if she sees blood for 8 days in the first month and for 4 days in the next, then a pause, and again bleeding starts making the total 8 days by including the intervening days, then such a woman cannot be classified as woman with fixed duration. She will be Mudhtariba, whose rules will be discussed later. 

- If a woman with the fixed habit of duration sees blood for less or more days than her habitual duration, but the number of those days does not exceed 10 days, she should treat them as Haydh. And if it exceeds 10 days and the nature of blood remains same throughout, then she will calculate her habitual duration from the day bleeding began, and treat it as Haydh. But if the nature of blood changes, with some days showing signs of Haydh and others showing signs of Istihadha, then there can be three possibilities: 

* if the number of days in which blood shows signs of Haydh tallies with the habitual duration, then she will take those days as of Haydh, and the rest as Istihadha.

If the number of days in which blood shows signs of Haydh exceeds her habitual duration, then she will take her habitual duration as Haydh, and the rest as Istihadha.

if the number of days in which blood shows signs of Haydh is less than her habitual duration, she will add some days to complete her duration and take that period as Haydh, and treat the rest of the days as Istihadha.

Mudhtaribah

- Mudhtaribah is a woman who may have seen blood for some months, but did not form a fixed habit, neither of time nor of duration. If such a woman sees blood for more than 10 days, and if the nature of blood remains same, either resembling Haydh or Istihadha, then she will be classified among those women who, despite fixed habit of time, see blood in unusual period, and is also unable to distinguish the signs of one from the other.

As a measure of precaution, she will refer to the prevailing habits among her relatives and adopt it. And if that is not possible, she will fix any reasonable number, neither less than 3 days nor more than ten days, as explained previously. 

- If Mudhtaribah sees blood for more than ten days, and if for some days the blood has the signs of Haydh and during other days has the signs of Istihadha , and if the blood which has the signs of Haydh is not less than 3 days nor more than 10 days, then all of it is Haydh. The rest will be Istihadha.

And if the blood bearing the signs of Haydh is for less than 3 days or more than 10 days, she will follow the rule explained in the foregoing clause for the sake of determining the number of days in Haydh.

And if after having determined her Haydh period, she again sees blood before completing 10 days of being clean, again with the signs of Haydh, she will treat this new emission as Istihadha.