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What is the ruling on blood that appears one week after menstruation, and is it considered menstrual blood? If so, how are the missed prayers to be made up?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If the visible blood is within a period that qualifies as menstruation, then it is menses and necessitates ghusl (ritual bath) after its cessation. However, if the total duration of the preceding blood, the subsequent blood, and the period of purity in between exceeds 15 days, then it is istihadah (non-menstrual vaginal bleeding), which does not necessitate ghusl. In this case, prayer is obligatory, with precautions taken and wudu' (ablution) performed for each prayer. If ghusl becomes obligatory and the returning blood is considered menses, then there is a difference of opinion among scholars regarding making up the prayers that were performed without ritual purity, and the more cautious approach is to make them up.

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

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