My wife was pregnant in the second month, but she miscarried due to heavy bleeding, and the bleeding has continued until now. Is it obligatory for her to pray and fast?

The questioner : May the Shaykh be honored, I have a wife who was pregnant in the second month

The Shaykh : The second month, or the eighth?

The questioner : The second month,

The Shaykh : Yes

The questioner : but she miscarried due to heavy bleeding, and the bleeding has continued until now. Is it obligatory for her to pray and fast, or what is required of her?

The Shaykh : If a woman miscarries in the second month of pregnancy, this blood is blood of corruption; it is not menstruation or post-natal bleeding. Therefore, it is obligatory for her to fast, and her fast is valid. It is obligatory for her to pray, and her prayer is valid. It is permissible for her husband to have intercourse with her, and there is no sin on him, because the scholars say that a condition of post-natal bleeding is that the child has been formed, meaning its limbs have become distinct—its leg, hand, and head. If she gives birth before it is formed, her blood is not post-natal bleeding. Stay with us; when is it formed? It is formed when eighty days have passed. Eighty days is two months and twenty days, not four months as stated in the famous hadith of Ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: These are four months to the end of the hadith. The clot, Allah has stated in His Book, may be formed or unformed. Therefore, before eighty days, the fetus cannot be formed. After eighty days, it may be formed or unformed. At ninety days, the scholars said that it is generally formed when it reaches ninety days. This woman mentioned by the questioner has not reached the stage where the fetus is formed, because she has only been pregnant for sixty days. Thus, her blood is blood of corruption that does not prevent her from prayer, fasting, or anything else. If she has not prayed, it is better for her to repeat the prayer.