The Meaning of the Mutahayyirah and the Excessive Effort of Jurists in the Issues of the Istihadah

Question:
The Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, says: The author of *Nail al-Awtar* (may Allah have mercy on him) said, “The authors of fiqh have gone to great lengths in discussing the istihadah (irregular non-menstrual bleeding), and their opinions are so confused that understanding them is difficult even for the most intelligent of students. So what do you think of women, who are described as having a deficiency in expression and a lack in their religion? They went to extremes in making things difficult until they brought up the issue of the mutahayyirah.” He asks: What is meant by this statement, and what is the mutahayyirah? May Allah preserve you.

Answer:
The mutahayyirah—have you heard of her?—is the one upon whom blood descends, and she has no regular cycle and no means of distinguishing it. She has no regular cycle and no means of distinguishing it. This is the mutahayyirah. And we only speak about her based on the hadiths. As for the excessive efforts mentioned by some jurists—some of them wrote an independent book on the istihadah, on the mutahayyirah, a book on the mutahayyirah, and they brought up things that a person cannot even read, let alone understand?
We proceed based on the hadiths in this matter, and you have heard the hadiths, and praise be to Allah, they are clear. There is no excessive effort in them and no hardship. Yes, the words of al-Shawkani (may Allah have mercy on him) are about this type of excessive effort. As for the one who proceeds based on the hadiths, that is the obligatory course. Yes.