Sunan al-Tirmidhī · Sunan Abī Dāwūd · Sunan Ibn Mājah · Musnad Aḥmad

Hamnah bint Jahsh (may Allah be pleased with her) reported: I used to experience a heavy prolonged flow of menstrual blood. So I came to the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) seeking a religious verdict and in order to tell him. I found him in the house of my sister, Zaynab bint Jahsh. I said: "O Messenger of Allah, I am a woman who experiences a heavy prolonged flow of menstrual blood, so what do you think about it?

It has prevented me from praying and fasting." He said: "I suggest that you use cotton, for it eliminates (the traces of) blood." She replied: "It is too copious for that." He said: "Then you can use a cloth." She replied: "It is too copious for that, for my blood keeps pouring heavily." The Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "I shall give you two commands; whichever of them you follow will be sufficient for you without the other, but you know best if you are strong enough to follow both of them." He added: "This is only a strike of the devil, so observe your menses for six or seven days, according to Allah's knowledge; then have a ritual bath.

When you see that you are pure and clean, pray during twenty-three or twenty-four days and nights and fast, for that will be enough for you (for freeing your liability), and do so every month, just as women menstruate and are purified at the time of their menstruation and their purification.

If you are able to delay the Zhuhr prayer and perform the ‘Asr prayer promptly, until you have a ritual bath, and then combine the two prayers and to delay the Maghrib prayer and perform the ‘Ishā' prayer, until you have a ritual bath, and then combine the two prayers, then do so: and to take a ritual bath at the Fajr prayer too, do so: and observe fast if you are able to." The Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Out of the two commands, the latter is more preferable to me."