If bleeding starts after the prayer time enters, how is the excused person status established?

Question: If bleeding starts after the prayer time enters, how is the excused person status established?

Answer:

Bismi Llahir Rahmanir Rahim

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatuLlahi wa barakatuhu

There are three conditions that must be met in order to establish the excused person status. ALL three of these conditions MUST be fulfilled.

They are:

The excuse is constant (which in this case would be vaginal bleeding),
such that a person cannot make wudu and pray the obligatory prayer without the excuse occurring,
and this circumstance lasts for an entire prescribed prayer time.

The details for each of these conditions are explained at length in this article: The Excused Person’s Rulings – A Complete Breakdown.

A situation may occur in which the excuse starts after the prayer time has entered. As such, the third condition for establishing the excused person status – which is for the excuse to last from the beginning to the end of a prescribed prayer time – is missing. Consequently, the excused person status cannot be established with this prayer time.

Instead, the person must see what happens in the next prayer time, and the ruling will be based upon what occurs then. If all three conditions are met during the second prayer time, the excused person status will be established. Otherwise, it will not be established.

STATUS ESTABLISHED IN SECOND PRAYER TIME

If the excuse continues and is constant for the entire time during the second prayer time, then the excused person status will be established.

Sample Scenario:

A woman begins to experience istihada during the Maghrib prayer time. Maghrib enters at 6 pm and she sees heavy vaginal bleeding at 6:10 pm.

She has not prayed Maghrib yet. When she tries to make wudu and pray, the wudu breaks due to the amount of blood exiting. Thus, she waits towards the end of the prayer time, makes wudu, and finishes praying the Maghrib prayer before the prayer time exits.

The reason that she delays offering the prayer towards the end of the time is to see if the bleeding will stop. If it does not stop, then she has no choice but to make wudu and perform the obligatory prayer within its prescribed time, even though blood is exiting.

As for the excused person status, knowing if she established it depends upon meeting all three conditions:

Was the blood constant? Yes
Was it impossible for her to make wudu and pray her obligatory prayer without something exiting? Yes
Was this her situation for an entire obligatory prayer time? No

She is missing the third condition. This means that she did not establish the excused person status when Maghrib exited.

When Isha enters, the bleeding is still heavy, and she cannot make wudu and pray without it exiting. As a result, she waits towards the end of the Isha prayer time to see if the bleeding will stop.

When it does not, she makes wudu, and she prays the Isha and Witr prayer in the prescribed time. When Fajr enters and the blood flow continues, she has now officially established the excused person status.

All three conditions were met to establish the excuse.

Was the blood constant? Yes
Was it impossible for her to make wudu and pray her obligatory prayer without something exiting? Yes
Was this her situation for an entire obligatory prayer time? Yes

In hindsight, her Maghrib prayer is definitely valid, even though the excused person status was not officially granted until Isha exited.

STATUS NOT ESTABLISHED IN SECOND PRAYER TIME

However, it may be the case that the blood flow stops in the second prayer time. Consequently, the excused person status will not be established.

Sample Scenario:

Just like the previous situation, she waits towards the end of the prayer time, makes wudu, and finishes praying the Maghrib prayer before the prayer time exits. The excuse is not established because it is missing the third condition.

When Isha enters at 7:30 pm, she still cannot make wudu without blood exiting. Therefore, she must wait to see whether the bleeding will stop or if she will establish the excuse.

At 11 pm, the bleeding stops. This means that she did not have continuous bleeding for an entire prescribed prayer time – neither for Maghrib or for Isha. Consequently, she did not establish the excused person status.

Thus, she makes wudu, repeats the Maghrib prayer, and prays Isha and Witr with a sound wudu. She repeats Maghrib because the wudu that she prayed it with was out of necessity, and the assumption was that she would establish the excuse in the next prayer time like in the previous scenario.

In hindsight, she realizes that the excuse was not established in the second prayer time, and in retrospect the Maghrib prayer is invalid because she prayed it on an invalid wudu. However, she is not sinful due to the circumstances.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

The following is a basic summary of the previously mentioned scenarios:

In the first example, she needed to wait until the end of the first prayer time (Maghrib) in order to pray, but the excuse was not established until the second prayer time exited (Isha).

In the second scenario, she needed to wait until the end of the first prayer time (Maghrib) in order to pray, but the excuse was not established in the first or second prayer time. Thus, she needs to repeat the Maghrib prayer because her wudu was invalid in hindsight and so was her prayer.

Check out these articles related to istihada:

The Excused Person’s Rulings: A Complete Breakdown

How do I pray with abnormal vaginal bleeding (istihada)?

Istihada: What Is It? And Examples

Check out our courses for more details about the general rulings of worship and menstruation.

Jazak Allah khayran

Naielah Ackbarali

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