A questioner says: We hope you will clarify for us when menstruation begins for a woman: is it with the flow of blood, or with what resembles dust, or simply with the pain accompanying the menses, or does it precede them slightly?

The questioner : The questioner says: We hope you will clarify for us when menstruation begins for a woman: is it with the flow of blood, or with what resembles dust, or simply with the pain accompanying the menses, or does it precede them slightly?

The Shaykh : Menstruation is blood, and a woman cannot be in a state of menstruation unless this blood flows. As for its precursors, the yellowish and brownish discharge, Umm 'Atiyyah (may Allah be pleased with her) said: So when the known blood accompanied by pain flows, that is menstruation. As for the yellowish and brownish discharge that precedes it, it is not part of menstruation, based on the hadith we referred to.