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Must a woman experiencing استحاضة wait for the bleeding to cease for every prayer, even if she does not know if the cessation will be sufficient for purification and prayer without blood flowing out again? And what should she do if she wishes to leave the house after the time for prayer has begun, and the cessation of bleeding is mostly insufficient? And is it permissible for her to combine ẓuhr and ʿaṣr prayers by performing them early if the bleeding ceases at the time of ẓuhr and she knows she will be leaving after ʿaṣr?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

A woman experiencing istihada (prolonged vaginal bleeding outside of menstruation or postpartum bleeding), whose bleeding does not stop, must perform ablution (wudu) for each prayer after its time has begun. With this ablution, she can pray the obligatory (fard) prayer and as many supererogatory (nafl) prayers as she wishes until the time for that prayer ends. She is not required to delay the prayer, and the continuous bleeding does not harm her prayer. She is permitted to combine Dhuhr and Asr prayers, and Maghrib and Isha prayers, with a single ablution. This combining can be done either as an early combination (jama' taqdim) or a delayed combination (jama' ta'khir), depending on what is easier for her, without requiring ghusl (ritual bath) for each prayer, if she finds difficulty in performing ablution for each prayer at its designated time. The time for Isha prayer extends until midnight.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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