I am having a problem with my menses. Everytime I take a ghusl after having menses. I see this yellowish whitish stuff. Sometimes I get this stuff when I am not on my menses. Should I wait until I see the yellow stuff to take ghusl? Sometimes it is a lot and other times it is not. Sometimes I get the yellowish whitish stuff and sometimes I don’t get it as much. I really need to know because it is hard for me to tell when I should start my salat.
Praise be to Allaah.
What usually happens with women is that the menstrual blood comes first, then it is followed by brownish
discharge, then yellowish discharge, then comes the whitish discharge
which is called al-qassah al-baydaa’, which is the sign of tahaarah
(purity). Some women find that the yellowish discharge ceases and they do
not experience the white discharge after that; the vagina becomes dry. If
the dryness persists for a complete day, more or less, then this is
tahaarah, even if there is no white discharge. But if a woman’s usual
cycle is to have blood then brownish discharge then yellowish discharge
within a certain time limit such as seven days, then she finds that she is
dry, then she should do ghusl and start praying – she does not have to
wait a whole day. If a woman sees that she is taahir (pure), whether by
noting the whitish discharge or the dryness for more than one day, then
she experiences a brownish or yellowish discharge, that doesn’t matter,
and she should not pay any attention to it; she should remain taahir,
unless blood is discharged – because Umm Salamah (may Allaah be pleased
with her) said: “We used to pay no attention to a brownish or yellowish
discharge after becoming taahir.” Based on the above, you have to figure
out what your cycle is, whether it is irregular or regular. The woman with an irregular cycle has to wait until she becomes taahir, unless her bleeding etc. lasts for more than fifteen days; if it reaches this extent and she did not become taahir, then she should do ghusl and start praying, and there is no sin on her in sha Allah. The woman whose cycle is regular should follow the details described above.
