628 - Al-Walid said: I do not know but that I mentioned this to al-Awza'i, and he said the same.

Chapter: The woman who sees blood for a moment, then it ceases

• I asked Ahmad ibn Hanbal and said: A woman sees blood at the time of prayer for an hour during the day in the days of her period, then it ceases for her? He seemed to lean toward the view that she should pay no attention to that, and he disapproved of it, saying: "Have you ever seen this?"

• I heard Ishaq ibn Ibrahim say: "If a woman sees blood during her period days for one day or two, then the blood ceases for her, and that was not the case in her past experience, then the precaution for her is that she should not count that as menstruation, and she must make up the prayer; because that might have been from a stubborn vein ('irq 'anid). It is not permissible for her to abandon prayer except for clear menstruation. If she used to see her periods in the past in a varying manner—sometimes shorter and sometimes longer—then if she sits when the blood increases during the days of the periods, I hope that it is acceptable for her, and she does not have to wait for three days, whether it was that long or less. Likewise, if she sees purity before the completion of her days, she performs ghusl and prays when she sees the white discharge (al-qassa al-bayda'). If the blood returns to her during her periods, then the people of knowledge have differed regarding that:

• As for Malik ibn Anas and those who followed his approach, he considers that menstruation to be a new menstruation, because he did not assign a specific time for purity nor for menstruation, except for fifteen days, which is the maximum of menstruation according to him. So if she were to see blood for one day and purity for one day—according to his view—that would be menstruation and purity, whether it occurred during the days of the periods or outside the days of the periods."