Is it obligatory for a woman with post-natal bleeding to complete the forty days until she becomes pure, or does she take a bath and pray as soon as she sees purity, even if she has not completed the forty days?

The questioner : Your Eminence, I am a woman who has given birth. Is it permissible for me, if I see

The Shaykh : Repeat the question.

The questioner : I am a woman who has given birth. Is it permissible for me, if I see purity, to fast and pray, or must I wait until the end of the forty days? And is it permissible for me to enter the sacred precinct if I have become pure, even though I have not performed the lesser pilgrimage?

The Shaykh : We must know that a ruling attached to a condition ceases when that condition ceases. So when Allah the Exalted says: , then when this harm is found, the ruling is established. Post-natal bleeding is like menstruation; it is blood that comes out due to childbirth. If a woman gives birth to something in which the form of a human being is not apparent, the ruling is established as long as this blood exists. If the blood ceases, the ruling ceases. If a woman with post-natal bleeding becomes pure after twenty-five days or less, it is obligatory for her to take a bath, pray, and fast if that is in Ramadan, because the post-natal bleeding has ceased and she has become pure from it. On this occasion, I would like to say that post-natal bleeding is not established unless the woman gives birth to something in which the form of a human being is apparent, meaning something that has been formed. If this pregnant woman gives birth to a fetus that is sixty days old in her womb, does she have post-natal bleeding? Answer, O people! No. Why? Because it has not been formed, and formation cannot occur before eighty days. The evidence for this is the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, regarding the creation of man: . So then... in the clot, and it is mentioned regarding the lump that it may be formed or unformed. And in the authentic hadith of Ibn Mas'ud, he said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) told us, and he is the truthful and the veracious, saying: Yes, no, that is enough.