Rulings Concerning a Fetus That Is Two Months Old

This message reached us from Sharifah Talib of the village of al-Khalafah in Tihama, Banu Shahir. She says: I have a neighbor who became pregnant and miscarried after two months. It is not known whether it was a male or a female. It was buried in a corner of the neighborhood and not in the Muslim cemetery. What is the ruling on this burial?
Answer: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, and upon his family and companions, and whoever follows their guidance.
As for what follows:
When a woman miscarries, there is a distinction: If the fetus is pure blood, this is what is called a fetus, and the blood that comes out because of it is not called post-natal bleeding, nor does she have the ruling of a woman in post-natal bleeding. Rather, she must pray and fast, and she is lawful for her husband. This is because this is not called post-natal bleeding as long as it is two months or three months old. In most cases, this is what forms, and it is corrupt blood. This blood is corrupt blood, and she prays and fasts. The collected blood that fell is buried in any place, in the house or the courtyard; it does not go to the cemeteries, and there is no need for that, because this is not a human being. She must pray and fast, and she considers this blood to be corrupt blood, like the blood that comes out of other wounds. It is corrupt blood that does not prevent her from praying and fasting, and it does not prevent her husband from having intercourse with her. Because it is corrupt blood, it is not called post-natal bleeding, nor is it called menstruation.
However, if the blood has gathered flesh in it—flesh has formed from it—and there is the creation of a human being in it, even if it is hidden, such as a head, a leg, or a hand. If that is known, the woman knows it, or the midwife who is trusted with her knows that this flesh has the creation of a human being in it, then this is called a child and is considered post-natal bleeding. In that case, she is not allowed to pray or fast, and her husband is not allowed to approach her, meaning to have intercourse with her. Because she is in a state of post-natal bleeding as long as the flesh that came out has the creation of a human being in it, even if four months have not passed in her estimation. Because the fetus may be formed before that. It is most common that it is not formed until the third stage after the clump, but there is what indicates in some hadiths that it may occur before that. So the result is that if it has the creation of a human being, it is considered post-natal bleeding. She must refrain from prayer and fasting, and her husband must refrain from approaching her, from having intercourse with her, until she becomes pure. If she becomes pure—even if it is for ten days or twenty days—she becomes lawful for her husband. It is not a condition of purity that she completes forty days. No, if she becomes pure and she is twenty or thirty days old, the purity is valid. She prays and fasts and becomes lawful for her husband. There is no limited limit for post-natal bleeding—before the forty days, meaning—it has no limited limit. Because women differ. A woman may become pure in a month, or in twenty-five days, or in less than that, or more than that. All of this happens. The ruling is tied to purity by the cessation of the blood and the sighting of purity. If she sees purity by the cessation of the blood and the sighting of what indicates purity, by seeing the white water, or by placing cotton in her vagina and the like of whiteness, and it is not affected, she takes it out and it is not affected by anything. This is the sign of purity. So she bathes, prays, fasts, and becomes lawful for her husband, even if only twenty or thirty days have passed of her post-natal bleeding.
If the blood continues until the forty days are completed and the blood is with her, then this excess blood is considered corrupt blood from the forty days. She prays and fasts and becomes lawful for her husband. She protects herself from this blood with cotton and the like, and she performs ablution for every time, for every prayer, as the women with irregular bleeding do. The women with irregular bleeding are not the same as menstruating women. The women with irregular bleeding are those with whom the blood continues after menstruation. Menstruation is one thing, and irregular bleeding is another. Menstruating women are those who sit for the usual time of menstruation. It is called a menstruating woman when the blood comes to her at her usual time and her blood is considered menstruation. She is called a menstruating woman; she does not pray, does not fast, and is not lawful for her husband. The woman with irregular bleeding is the one who is afflicted with excess blood beyond menstruation that continues with her. This excess blood is called irregular bleeding. If it comes, she bathes, prays, and fasts. And if the usual time of menstruation comes, she stops praying and fasting and becomes forbidden to her husband until the days of menstruation end.
This woman in post-natal bleeding is like the menstruating woman in the time of post-natal bleeding—the time of blood from post-natal bleeding. She does not pray, does not fast, and is not lawful for her husband. If this blood goes for a month or twenty days, she becomes pure, bathes, prays, fasts, and becomes lawful for her husband, even if she has not completed the forty days. And this blood that does not have the creation of a human being does not have the ruling of a child. It is not washed, no prayer is performed over it, and it is not buried in the Muslim cemeteries. All of this. However, if it has the creation of a human being, it is considered a fetus and she has the ruling of post-natal bleeding. But if the soul has not been breathed into it—it has not moved in its mother’s womb—there is no harm in burying it in the open part of the house. A hole is dug for it in the courtyard and it is buried, and there is no blame. Because it has not acquired the ruling of the dead at that time. The soul has not been breathed into it, and it has not moved in its mother’s womb. It does not have the ruling of the dead, but it has the ruling of a human being in the obligation of post-natal bleeding, in the ruling of post-natal bleeding only.
However, if the soul is breathed into it and it moves, and then she gives birth to it dead or alive and then it dies, this is washed, shrouded, prayed over, and buried in the Muslim cemeteries. This is what should be done. This is the detail of this issue. Yes.