Masʾalah 67: The Minimum Number of Days of Menstruation

The disagreement

They differed regarding the minimum duration of menstruation. There are three opinions on the matter.

The three opinions

There is no minimum limit for menstruation; even a single discharge of blood is considered menstruation. This is the opinion of Mālik.

The minimum is one day and one night. This is the opinion of al-Shāfiʿī and Aḥmad.

The minimum is three days. This is the opinion of Abū Ḥanīfah.

Reason for the difference

There is no evidence from the Sunnah specifying a particular minimum duration for menstruation. Rather, the matter is based on habits and customary patterns. Each scholar determined the minimum according to what the habits had established, and the duration varies from one woman to another.

Evidence

Mālik

No minimum duration for menstruation has been specified in the Sharīʿah. It is therefore left to customary practice (ʿurf), since menstruation is blood that is distinct from istiḥāḍah and is followed by a period of purity.

al-Shāfiʿī and Aḥmad

No specific minimum number of days has been established in the Sharīʿah, so reference is made to custom (ʿurf) and habit (ʿādah). It has been observed that women usually menstruate for one day.

Abū Ḥanīfah

• The ḥadīth of Wāthilah ibn al-Asqaʿ that the Prophet ﷺ said: “The minimum of menstruation is three days, and its maximum is ten days.” (Declared weak.)
• The ḥadīth of Umm Salamah concerning a woman who experienced bleeding, in which the Prophet ﷺ said that she should wait for the number of days and nights during which she normally menstruated each month. (Reported by Aḥmad and others; authenticated by al-Albānī.)
• The smallest plural in Arabic is three, which is taken here as an indication.

The stronger opinion

The second opinion is stronger: the minimum duration of menstruation is one day and one night. A number of scholars held this, including ʿAṭāʾ, al-Awzāʿī, and al-Shāfiʿī (may Allah have mercy on them). They observed women whose menstruation lasted only a single day and then ceased. Consideration is therefore given to customary practice, and Allah knows best.

The practical consequence

• Mālik: if blood appears for only a moment and then stops, it is menstruation. Ghusl is required, and the fast is invalidated.
• al-Shāfiʿī and Aḥmad: if she sees blood and it stops before one full day, it is istiḥāḍah; if it continues beyond a day, the rulings of menstruation apply.
• Abū Ḥanīfah: if blood appears for two days and then stops, it is istiḥāḍah; if it reaches three days, the rulings of menstruation apply.

References

Bidāyat al-Mujtahid wa Nihāyat al-Muqtaṣid, Badāʾiʿ al-Ṣanāʾiʿ, al-Hidāyah, al-Tafrīʿ, al-Muʿūnah, Nihāyat al-Muṭlab, Rawḍat al-Ṭālibīn, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr, al-Mughnī, and Sharḥ Ibn Rāshid.