Purity after menstruation: what it is and how it is known

Makhul said: A woman should not take the ritual bath (ghusl) of menstruation until she sees a purity as white as silver.

Ibn Jurayj said: I asked Ata: What is purity (tuhr)? He said: The white dryness, with which there is no yellowness and no fluid.

Yahya bin Sa'id said: I sent a messenger to Ra'itah, the freed slave-woman of Amrah. The messenger came and told me that Amrah used to say to the women: When one of you inserts cotton into her private part and it comes out discoloured, she should not pray as long as she sees anything on it.

Yunus bin Yazid said: I asked al-Zuhri about the yellow and turbid discharge that comes after menstruation. He said: It is part of menstruation; the woman should not pray until she is clean.

Fatimah bint al-Mundhir said: We were under the care of Sayyidah Asma bint Abi Bakr (may Allah be pleased with her) along with her daughter's daughters. Sometimes one of us girls would become pure and pray, and then she would notice a little yellow discharge, so we asked Sayyidah Asma about it. She said: "Leave the prayer until you see pure whiteness."

It reached the daughter of Sayyiduna Zayd bin Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) that women would call for lamps at night to look for purity. She found this practice objectionable and said: "The women (of earlier times) did not do this."