Women Vaginal Discharges and Blood: Menstruation, Istihathah, and Postpartum from Islamic, Doctrinal and Medical Perspectives

Abstract

This research discusses the controversy issues among the scholars about the women vaginal discharges which plays an important role in a Muslim woman’s life since most of the ritual acts rely on the rulings of these discharges. The vast majority of the books in this subject are in Arabic which prevents many women who live in the West to benefit from them. This subject has many different opinions among the scholars who wrote their opinions according to the situations of the women who lived at their time. Currently, women are exposed to many new things which affect their discharges and cause them more confusion about the rulings on these discharges. In this research, many of the questions about vaginal discharges will be answered like: What is the difference between menstruation and prolonged bleeding? Are yellowish and brownish discharges before and after menstruation considered menstruation? Is the normal vaginal discharge pure? Can a woman who has any of vaginal discharge read Quran, enter the masjid, or make pilgrimage? And are there minimum and maximum number of days for menstruation, prolonged bleeding, or postpartum? This research attempts to conclude with the strongest opinion which is related to women vaginal discharges by combining between the Islamic texts and the medical field. Various methods were used in order to reach the strongest opinion in different issues like: i) investigating the authenticity of each evidence the scholars used to build their opinions, ii) meetings were personally conducted with doctors in Obstetrics and Gynecology, iii) a questionnaire was distributed among 55 women, married and unmarried, between the ages of 13-69 who live in the U.S. to answer some questions to know their experiences about some issues related to these discharges. The main conclusion in this research is when any Islamic rulings regarding any kind of women vaginal discharges take place; it should be established upon clear and authentic evidences. Otherwise, when there are no clear and authentic evidences, the ruling should be one of permissibility (i.e. it is pure and not impure). Also, when the medical field proves something in this subject which does not contradict any of the Islamic texts, one should follow and imply it. Furthermore, most of the scholars who wrote about this subject are male scholars who are in most cases unaware about what women really deal with and that makes it necessary to have a female scholar who knows about the vaginal discharges.