to sixty except a Qurayshi woman. Al-Shafi'i has two opinions; one of them is that the age is considered at which it is certain that if she reaches it, she will not menstruate. Some of them said: it is sixty-two years. The second is that the age is considered at which the women of her tribe reach menopause; because the apparent situation is that her development is like theirs, and her nature is like their nature. The correct view, if Allah Almighty wills, is that whenever a woman reaches fifty years of age, and her menstruation ceases, contrary to her habit, multiple times without a cause, she has become one who has reached menopause; because the presence of menstruation in the case of such a woman is rare, as evidenced by the saying of Aisha, and its scarcity of occurrence. So when the cessation of it from her habits multiple times is added to this, despair of its occurrence is achieved; she then has the right to observe the 'idda by months. If it ceases before that, then her ruling is the ruling of one whose menstruation has ceased without her knowing what caused it to cease, based on what we will mention, if Allah Almighty wills. If she sees blood after fifty, according to the habit in which she used to see it, it is menstruation, in the correct view; because the evidence for menstruation is its occurrence during a time of possibility, and this is a time in which menstruation is possible, even if it is rare. If she sees it after sixty, then it is certain that it is not menstruation; [because that has not occurred. Al-Khiraqi said: And if she sees it after sixty, then it is certain that it is not menstruation]. At that point, she does not consider it, and she observes the 'idda by months, like one who does not see blood.

Section: The minimum age at which a woman menstruates is nine years; because the reference point for this is actual occurrence, and there have been those who menstruated at nine. It has been narrated from Al-Shafi'i that he said: I saw a grandmother who was twenty-one years old. If you subtract from her age the duration of the two pregnancies, which is usually a year and a half, and divide the remainder between her and her daughter, each of them would have been pregnant before the age of ten. If she sees blood before that, it is not menstruation; because there has not occurred any instance of such being repeated, and what is considered in that regard is what has been repeated three times in a state of health, and that has not occurred, so it is not to be considered.