Liaison office of Grand Ayatullah Sayyid Ali Al Sistani (L.M.H.L) in London, Europe, North and South America.
514. From the time when the child birth takes place, the blood seen by
the mother is Nifas, provided that it stops before or on completion of the tenth
day. While in the condition of Nifas, a woman is called Nafsa.
515. The blood which a mother sees before the appearance of the first
limb of the child is not Nifas.
516. It is not necessary that the baby is fully grown. Even if a
deficient baby is born, the blood seen by the mother for ten days will be Nifas.
The term 'Child birth' must be applicable to it.
517. It is possible that Nifas blood may be discharged for an instant
only, but it never exceeds 10 days.
518. If a woman doubts whether she has aborted something or not, or
whether the thing aborted is a child or not, it is not necessary for her to
investigate, and the blood which is discharged in this situation is not Nifas.
519. On the basis of precaution, halting or pausing in a masjid and
other acts which are haraam for a Haaez are also haraam for a Nafsa and those
acts which are obligatory for a Haaez are also obligatory for a Nafsa.
520. Divorcing a woman who is in the state of Nifas and having sexual
intercourse with her is haraam. However, if her husband has sexual intercourse
with her it does not involve any Kaffara.
521. When a woman becomes Pak from Nifas, she should do Ghusl and
perform acts of worship. And if she sees blood again, once or often, and the
total number of days on which blood is seen and the intervening days during
which she remains Pak is 10 or less than 10, then all of it will be Nifas.
In the intervening days, as a precaution, she will perform all that is
obligatory for a Pak woman and also refrain from all acts which are forbidden to
a woman in Nifas. So, if she had kept fasts, she will give their Qadha. And if
the blood which she saw later exceeds ten days then there can be two situations:
if the woman does not have a fixed habit of duration, then she will count
the first ten days as Nifas, and the rest as Istihaza.
and if she has fixed habit of duration, then, as a precaution, the blood
which she sees after the habitual days of duration will require her to act
as a Mustahaza, and also avoid all that is forbidden to a woman in Nifas.
522. If a woman becomes Pak from Nifas, but feels that there might be
blood in the interior part, she should insert some cotton, and wait till she
finds out. If she finds herself Pak then she should do Ghusl for the acts of
worship.
523. If Nifas blood is seen by a mother for more than 10 days and she
has a fixed habit of Hayz, then her Nifas will be equal to the duration of Hayz
and the rest would be Istihaza. And, if she does not have a fixed habit of Hayz,
she would take ten days as those of Hayz, and treat the rest as Istihaza.
For a woman who has a fixed habit of Hayz, it is a recommended precaution to
act as a Mustahaza from the day after her habit is over, and at the same time
refrain from acts forbidden to one in Nifas till 18th day. And for a woman with
no fixed habit of Hayz, this recommended precaution applies from the tenth to
the eighteenth day since the child birth.
524. If the habit of Hayz of a woman is less than 10 days and blood is
seen for more days than the days of her Hayz, she should treat the days equal to
the days of her Hayz as Nifas. After that, she has a choice either to leave out
her Namaz or act according to the rules of Istihaza, but it is better to leave
out Namaz for a day. And if the blood continues to be seen even after 10 days,
then all the days in excess of her habit, up to the tenth day, will be Istihaza
and she should give Qadha of the acts of worship which she did not perform
during those days.
For example, if the Hayz duration of a woman has always
been 6 days and her blood comes for more than 6 days, she should treat 6 days as
Nifas and on the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th day, it will be her choice either to
abstain from all acts of worship or adopt the rules of Istihaza. And if she sees
blood for more than ten days, all the days in excess of her habitual duration of
Hayz will be treated as the days of Istihaza.
525. If a woman, with a fixed habit of Hayz sees blood continuously
for a month or more after giving birth to a child, the blood seen for the days
equal to her Hayz habit will be Nifas, and the blood seen after that for ten
days will be Istihaza, even if it coincides with the dates of her monthly Hayz.
For example, there is a woman whose fixed Hayz habit is from 20th to 27th of
every month.
She gives birth on the 10th of a given month, and she continues
to see blood for a month or more; her Nifas will be seven days, equal to her
Hayz days, and will be from 10th to 17th of that month; now, the blood which she
continues to see from the 17th onwards for ten days will be Istihaza, even
though it falls in her days of Hayz habit.
After the lapse of 10 days, if
bleeding continues, then it is Hayz if it falls in the days of habit,
irrespective of whether it has the signs of Hayz or not.
And if bleeding
does not occur in the days of Hayz habit, she will wait till the days of her
habit, even if it means waiting for a month or more and even if blood has the
signs of Hayz.
And if she has no fixed habit of commencement time of Hayz,
she should make an effort to recognise her Hayz by its signs; and if that is not
possible, because the blood seen after Nifas remains of one type for a month or
more, then she will adopt the habit prevailing among her relatives to determine
the days of Hayz.
And, if that also is not possible, then she has an option
of fixing her days of Hayz. These details have been dealt with in the
discussions about Hayz.
526. If a woman does not have a fixed habit of duration, and if after
giving birth she sees blood continuously for a month or more, the rules
contained in no. 523 will apply to the first 10 days; and as for the next 10
days it is Istihaza. And as regards the blood seen thereafter, it can be either
Hayz or Istihaza, and in order to ascertain whether it is Hayz, she will follow
the rule stated in the foregoing clause.