Nifas

- From the time when the child birth takes place, the blood seen by the mother is Nifas, provided that it stops before or on completion of the tenth day. While in the condition of Nifas, a woman is called Nafsa. 

- The blood which a mother sees before the appearance of the first limb of the child is not Nifas. 

- It is not necessary that the baby is fully grown. Even if a deficient baby is born, the blood seen by the mother for ten days will be Nifas. The term 'Child birth' must be applicable to it. 

- It is possible that Nifas blood may be discharged for an instant only, but it never exceeds 10 days. 

- If a woman doubts whether she has aborted something or not, or whether the thing aborted is a child or not, it is not necessary for her to investigate, and the blood which is discharged in this situation is not Nifas. 

- On the basis of precaution, halting or pausing in a masjid and other acts which are haraam for a Haaez are also haraam for a Nafsa and those acts which are obligatory for a Haaez are also obligatory for a Nafsa. 

- Divorcing a woman who is in the state of Nifas and having sexual intercourse with her is haraam. However, if her husband has sexual intercourse with her it does not involve any Kaffara. 

- When a woman becomes Clean from Nifas, she should do Ghusl and perform acts of worship. And if she sees blood again, once or often, and the total number of days on which blood is seen and the intervening days during which she remains Clean is 10 or less than 10, then all of it will be Nifas.

In the intervening days, as a precaution, she will perform all that is obligatory for a Clean woman and also refrain from all acts which are forbidden to a woman in Nifas. So, if she had kept fasts, she will give their Qadha. And if the blood which she saw later exceeds ten days then there can be two situations: 

* If the woman does not have a fixed habit of duration, then she will count the first ten days as Nifas, and the rest as Istihadha. 

* and if she has fixed habit of duration, then, as a precaution, the blood which she sees after the habitual days of duration will require her to act as a Mustahadha, and also avoid all that is forbidden to a woman in Nifas. 

- If a woman becomes Clean from Nifas, but feels that there might be blood in the interior part, she should insert some cotton, and wait till she finds out. If she finds herself Clean then she should observe her Ghusl for the acts of worship. 

- If Nifas blood is seen by a mother for more than 10 days and she has a fixed habit of Haydh, then her Nifas will be equal to the duration of Haydh and the rest would be Istihadha. And, if she does not have a fixed habit of Haydh, she would take ten days as those to be Nifas, and treat the rest as Istihadha.

For a woman who has a fixed habit of Haydh, it is a recommended precaution to act as a Mustahadha from the day after her habit is over, and at the same time refrain from acts forbidden to one in Nifas till 18th day. And for a woman with no fixed habit of Haydh, this recommended precaution applies from the tenth to the eighteenth day since the child birth. 

- If the habit of Haydh of a woman is less than 10 days and blood is seen for more days than the days of her Haydh, she should treat the days equal to the days of her Haydh as Nifas. After that, she has a choice either to leave out her Prayer or act according to the rules of Istihadha, but it is better to leave out Prayer for a day. And if the blood continues to be seen even after 10 days, then all the days in excess of her habit, upto the tenth day, will be Istihadha  and she should give Qadha of the acts of worship which she did not perform during those days. 
For example, if the Haydh duration of a woman has always been 6 days and her blood comes for more than 6 days, she should treat 6 days as Nifas and on the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th day, it will be her choice either to abstain from all acts of worship or adopt the rules of Istihadha. And if she sees blood for more than ten days, all the days in excess of her habitual duration of Haydh will be treated as the days of Istihadha. 

- If a woman, with a fixed habit of Haydh sees blood continuously for a month or more after giving birth to a child, the blood seen for the days equal to her Haydh habit will be Nifas, and the blood seen after that for ten days will be Istihadha , even if it coincides with the dates of her monthly Haydh. For example, there is a woman whose fixed Haydh habit is from 20th to 27th of every month.

She gives birth on the 10th of a given month, and she continues to see blood for a month or more; her Nifas will be seven days, equal to her Haydh days, and will be from 10th to 17th of that month; now, the blood which she continues to see from the 17th onwards for ten days will be Istihadha, even though it falls in her days of Haydh habit. 
After the lapse of 10 days, if bleeding continues, then it is Haydh if it falls in the days of habit, irrespective of whether it has the signs of Haydh or not. 

And if bleeding does not occur in the days of Haydh habit, she will wait till the days of her habit, even if it means waiting for a month or more and even if blood has the signs of Haydh.

And if she has no fixed habit of commencement time of Haydh, she should make an effort to recognise her Haydh by its signs; and if that is not possible, because the blood seen after Nifas remains of one type for a month or more, then she will adopt the habit prevailing among her relatives to determine the days of Haydh.

And, if that also is not possible, then she has an option of fixing her days of Haydh. These details have been dealt with in the discussions about Haydh. 

- If a woman does not have a fixed habit of duration, and if after giving birth she sees blood continuously for a month or more, the rules contained in no. 523 will apply to the first 10 days; and as for the next 10 days it is Istihadha. And as regards the blood seen thereafter, it can be either Haydh or Istihadha, and in order to ascertain whether it is Haydh, she will follow the rule stated in the foregoing clause.