she refrains from prayer. Ya'qub ibn Bukhtan said: I asked Ahmad about the woman if labor pains strike her a day or two before childbirth; does she repeat the prayer? He said: No. Ibrahim al-Nakha'i said: If labor pains strike her and she sees blood, he said: It is menstruation. This is the view of the people of Medina and al-Shafi'i. 'Ata' said: She prays, and does not count it as menstruation or postnatal bleeding. Our evidence is that it is blood that has exited due to the birth, so it is postnatal bleeding, like the blood that exits after it. Its exit being known due to the birth is only when it is near to it, and that is known by seeing its signs, such as labor pains and the like at its time. As for if she sees blood without any sign of the proximity of the delivery, she shall not abandon worship for it because the apparent state is that it is blood of irregularity (fasad). If it becomes clear that it was near the time of delivery—such as her delivering a day or two after it—she repeats the obligatory fast if she had fasted during it. And if she sees it upon a sign of delivery, she abandons worship. If it becomes clear that it was far from it, she repeats what she missed of the obligatory acts of worship, because she abandoned them without it being menstruation or postnatal bleeding.

107- Issue; He said: (And if she sees blood while she is fifty years old, she shall not abandon the fast nor the prayer, and she performs the compensatory fast as a precaution. But if she sees it after sixty, the ambiguity has ceased; it is certain that it is not menstruation, so she fasts and prays, and does not perform [compensatory] fasting).

There is a difference of opinion in the narration from Ahmad, may Allah have mercy on him, regarding this issue. What al-Khiraqi reported here is that she does not despair of menstruation with certainty until sixty years of age, and what she sees between fifty and sixty is doubted, so she does not abandon prayer or fasting for it; because their obligation is certain, so it is not dropped by doubt. She performs the compensatory fast as a precaution, because its obligation was certain, and what she fasted during the time of the blood is doubted as to its validity, so what is known with certainty to be obligatory is not dropped by it. It was narrated from him that which indicates that she does not menstruate after fifty. Likewise, Ishaq ibn Rahwayh said: It cannot be menstruation after fifty, and her ruling regarding the blood she sees is the ruling of...