I would like to ask about this situation. My period lasts seven days regularly. If my period lasts longer than seven days, can I fast?

Answer

Praise Be to Allah and Peace Be Upon His Messenger.

Referring to your question, a menstruating woman should not pray, nor should she fast unless she becomes pure from her period. Purity is achieved once her menstruation stops by seizing bleeding or once she sees a white discharge (a white liquid that a woman releases as a marker of purity). A woman should not hasten fasting unless she becomes pure from her period before dawn or with the start of dawn, no later than dawn. If she becomes pure after dawn, she takes the purity shower so as to pray, but she must fast the following day after the day when she becomes pure. This is the case even if menstruation lasts fifteen days.

Shaikh Muhammad Ahmad Hussain, the General Mufti (Muslim Legal Scholar), in the Palestinian Legal Verdict Council, was once asked a similar question. A woman asked him that her usual period lasts ten days. In Ramadan, however, it lasts one more day. She also added that she saw white and brown liquids on her underwear, but when she woke up, there was nothing like that. Thus, she continued that she completed her fast. Was that day accepted?

He answered: “A woman should not hasten purity unless blood stops or she sees the white discharge (a white liquid that a woman releases as a marker of purity).

Aisha   RRA said that women used to send her little boxes with a piece of cotton cloth on which there was yellowness from menstrual blood, asking her about the prayer. She said to them: “Do not hasten until you see a white discharge.” Al-Bukhari (suspended).

Thus, a menstruating woman should neither pray nor fast unless she becomes completely pure.