this, for it is shifting menstrual blood. Al-Fadl ibn Ziyad (3) transmitted: She should not shift to it except on the third, so she must refrain from prayer and fasting. In one narration of his, he said: I asked Abu 'Abd Allah about a woman whose days of menstruation are known, and sometimes it exceeds her days of menstruation in many months; should she refrain from prayer or pray? He said: Rather, she should pray and not pay attention to what exceeded her menstruation, unless it is shifting menstrual blood (4) or similar to that. I said: Should she pray until it happens to her three times (5), then stop praying after three (6)? He said: Yes, after three. In this narration, there is an explicit statement that she does not count the increase as part of her menstruation until the fourth time, and that she prays and fasts during the three times. In his first narration, it is possible that she counts it (7) as part of her menstruation in the third time; because of his saying: She does not shift to it except on the third. It is also possible that he meant after the third. In Hanbal’s narration, there are two possibilities: one of them is that she shifts to it on the second time and counts it as part of her menstruation. The second is that she does not shift to it except on the third. The majority of narrations from him reflect the consideration of repeating three times regarding what exceeded the habit, whether she saw the blood before her habit, or after it while the habit remained, or if the blood cut off during it, or in some of it. For she should not sit (refrain from worship) at times other than her days until it is repeated twice or three times. When it is repeated, we know that it is shifting menstruation, so she turns to it, meaning she leaves off prayer and fasting during it, and it becomes a habit for her, and she abandons the first, meaning the first habit; because she has shifted from it, and the habit has become more than it or something else. Then she must make up what she fasted (8) of the obligatory [fasts] during these three times which we commanded her to fast during; because it became clear that she fasted it during menstruation, and fasting during menstruation is not valid. As for prayer, she is not required to make it up; because the menstruating woman does not make up prayer. Abu