so its beginning and its end are from the second, like the duration of the waiting period ('iddah). According to this, the blood she sees before the birth of the second is not postpartum bleeding. The companions of al-Shafi'i have three views, corresponding to the three opinions. Al-Qadi mentioned that it is from both of them as a single narration, and that the disagreement is only regarding the blood between the two births: is it postpartum bleeding or not? This is ostensibly a rejection of the narration of the one who narrated that the end of the postpartum bleeding is from the first.

Section: The ruling of a woman in a state of postpartum bleeding is the ruling of a menstruating woman in all that is forbidden to her and what is dropped from her; we know of no disagreement regarding this. Likewise, the prohibition of intercourse with her, the lawfulness of physical contact with her, and enjoying what is below the private parts. There is disagreement regarding the expiation for having intercourse with her. This is because the blood of postpartum bleeding is the blood of menstruation, but its exit was prevented during the period of pregnancy because it is diverted to the nourishment of the fetus. When the fetus is delivered and the vein that served as the channel for the blood is severed, it exits from the private parts, and its ruling is established, just as if it had exited from a menstruating woman. Postpartum bleeding differs from menstruation in that the waiting period ('iddah) is not fulfilled by it, because it concludes with the delivery of the fetus prior to it, and it does not indicate puberty, because that is achieved through pregnancy prior to it.

104- Issue: He said: (Whoever has specific days and they exceed what she used to know, she should not pay attention to the excess, unless she sees it three times, so she knows then that her menstruation has shifted, so she turns to it and abandons (1) the first. If she had fasted during these three times (2), she must repeat it, if it was an obligatory fast. If she sees blood before her days that she used to know, she should not pay attention to it, until it returns to her three times).

The gist of this is that if a woman has an established habit in menstruation and sees blood at a time other than her habit, she does not count what exited from the habit as menstruation until it repeats three times, according to one of the two narrations, or twice, according to the other. Hanbal transmitted from Ahmad regarding a woman who has known days, and the menstruation arrived earlier than her days: she should not pay attention to it; she fasts and prays. If it returns to her in the second [instance] like that, then it is shifting menstrual blood.