What is the evidence for limiting istihadah to fifteen days?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Limiting istihadah to when it exceeds fifteen days...?
The Shaykh : There is no explicit evidence for this, but there is an indication: the reduction in religious obligations, because when she menstruates, she does not pray or fast. A group of scholars, including Ibn Rajab (may Allah have mercy on him), interpreted this to mean half the time, because the majority of the difference between men and women is based on the half.
The questioner : ...
The Shaykh : And Allah knows best, this is good, except if she has a customary pattern, or as I told you, if her menstruation is concentrated in one month and she remains in a state of purity for three months, for example.
As for Shaykh al-Islam (may Allah have mercy on him), he holds that the woman with irregular bleeding is the one for whom blood is the majority of her time; he does not restrict it to exceeding fifteen days.
The questioner : ...
The Shaykh : That is the apparent meaning.
The Shaykh : There is no explicit evidence for this, but there is an indication: the reduction in religious obligations, because when she menstruates, she does not pray or fast. A group of scholars, including Ibn Rajab (may Allah have mercy on him), interpreted this to mean half the time, because the majority of the difference between men and women is based on the half.
The questioner : ...
The Shaykh : And Allah knows best, this is good, except if she has a customary pattern, or as I told you, if her menstruation is concentrated in one month and she remains in a state of purity for three months, for example.
As for Shaykh al-Islam (may Allah have mercy on him), he holds that the woman with irregular bleeding is the one for whom blood is the majority of her time; he does not restrict it to exceeding fifteen days.
The questioner : ...
The Shaykh : That is the apparent meaning.