istihadah. There is another opinion that the five days are collected for her from all the days of bleeding, so she observes the seventh and the ninth days. The correct opinion is the first one, because these two days are not part of her habit; thus, she does not observe them, unlike the case of the collection (tafliq). If she has a faculty of discrimination (tamyiz), she observes the duration of the black blood among the days, which is her menstruation, and the rest is istihadah. If she is a beginner (mubtadi'ah), she observes the certain duration [of her habit] for three months, from the first blood she sees, or for two months, then after that she transitions to six or seven days. Is the seven days collected for her from fifteen days, or does she observe four days out of seven? There are two opinions, as we have said regarding someone whose habit is seven days. If we say she observes the duration of the blood out of seven, she observes the first, third, fifth, and seventh days. If we assign her six days, the seventh day is dropped. If we say it is collected for her, she adds the ninth, and the eleventh if we say she observes six; and if she observes seven, she adds the thirteenth. Such is the ruling for the forgetful woman. This is one of the two opinions of al-Shafi'i, except that he does not collect the number of her days in one of the two opinions. Al-Qadi said [this applies] to the one with a habit, as we mentioned. Regarding others: what exceeds fifteen days is istihadah, and the days of blood within the fifteen are all menstruation if it recurs. If it is one day [of blood] and one day [of purity], she has eight days of menstruation and seven of purity. If it is in halves, she has seven and a half days of menstruation, and the like of it as purity. This is the opinion of Ibn Bint al-Shafi'i; because the purity on the sixteenth day separates between the menstruation and what follows it, for she is thereafter in the state of the pure women, and we order her to perform prayer and fasting. Our view is that if purity could be distinguished after the fifteenth day, it would have been distinguished before it, like the distinction of color. The ruling in the case where it is in halves or is varied—one day of blood and days of purity, or one day of purity and days of blood—is like the ruling for complete, equal days. However, if the portion in which she first sees the blood is less than the minimum of menstruation, there is an opinion that it is not menstruation until it is preceded by continuous blood that is fit to be menstruation. And if we say that purity prevents what follows it from being menstruation before it recurs, and it comes in the habit,