Question

A man asks: my mother is sixty-five years old and she has not had any children for the last nineteen years. Now, she has bleeding that started three years ago and it seems to be because of a certain disease. Ramadan is about to begin, what should she do?

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu 'alyhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen said: "This woman should abandon praying and fasting for the same number of days during which she used to have her menstrual cycle. For instance, if she used to have menstruation during the first six days of the month, she should abandon praying and fasting during these days, then perform Ghusl (ritual bathing), and then pray and fast. She should wash her private parts well and apply a sanitary towel then perform ablution and she should do all this after the time of the prayer is due (so she would not be obligated to pray the previous prayer). She should also do this if she wants to pray voluntary prayers at times other than the times of the obligatory prayers. To alleviate hardship, she is permitted to combine two obligatory prayers so that she could do this once for every two prayers; she can pray Thuhr and ‘Asr prayers with one ablution, then Maghrib and ‘Ishaa’ prayers with one ablution either as an early or deferred combination. I stress that she has to pray four Rak‘ahs for Thuhr, ‘Asr and ‘Ishaa’, three Rak‘ahs for Maghrib and two Rak‘ahs for Fajr, which means that she does not shorten prayers, contrary to what some people think. She may only combine Thuhr with ‘Asr and Maghrib with ‘Ishaa’, whether early or deferred. She may also pray voluntary prayers with this same ablution."

Allah Knows best.

Fatwa answered by: The Fatwa Center at Islamweb