Women's fiqh glossary
Short definitions of the terms used across our calculators and guides, following the Hanafi school, with other spellings and the Urdu term.
Haiz حیض
Also: hayd, haid, haidh, menstruation
Menstrual bleeding. In Hanafi fiqh it lasts at least 3 days and at most 10 days, and must come after at least 15 days of purity. During haiz a woman does not pray or fast; missed prayers are not made up, missed obligatory fasts are.
Istihaza استحاضہ
Also: istihadha, istihaazah
Bleeding that is neither haiz nor nifas: less than 3 days, beyond the maximum, before 15 days of purity, or during pregnancy. Prayer and fasting continue. The bleeding breaks wudu; if it is continuous, the ma'zur rules apply.
Nifas نفاس
Also: nifaas, postpartum bleeding
Bleeding after childbirth. Maximum 40 days, no minimum. Blood seen again within the 40 days is still nifas in the relied-upon Hanafi position.
Tuhr / taharat طہر
Also: tahara, purity
The clean period between two bleedings. The minimum between two periods is 15 days; there is no maximum.
Tuhr fasid طہرِ فاسد
Also: invalid purity
A clean gap of less than 15 days between two bleedings. It does not count as purity and is treated as part of the bleeding.
Dam دم
Also: blood
Blood. In the calculators, dam days are days on which blood or coloured discharge was seen.
Aadat عادت
Also: adat, habit
A woman's habit: the length of haiz and purity in her last valid cycle. One valid cycle establishes or changes it. It decides the ruling when bleeding goes beyond 10 days.
Mubtadi'a مبتدئہ
Also: beginner
A girl or woman who has just started menstruating and has no habit yet. If her bleeding continues, 10 days are haiz and 20 days purity.
Ma'zur معذور
Also: mazur, mazoor, ma'zoor, shar'i excuse
A person whose bleeding, discharge or other wudu-breaking condition lasts through an entire prayer time without a break long enough for wudu and the fard prayer. They make wudu once per prayer time. The status ends when a complete prayer time passes without it.
Ghusl غسل
Also: ghusal, ritual bath
The full ritual bath, required when haiz or nifas ends. Its obligatory parts in the Hanafi school: rinsing the mouth, rinsing the nose, and washing the whole body.
Iddah عدت
Also: iddat, idda, waiting period
The waiting period after divorce, khula or a husband's death: three periods, three months, four months and ten days, or until the birth if pregnant.
Khalwa sahiha خلوتِ صحیحہ
Also: valid privacy
A husband and wife being alone together in privacy with nothing preventing intimacy. In the Hanafi school it is treated like consummation for iddah and mahr.
Nafaqa نفقہ
Also: maintenance, kharcha
Financial maintenance: food, clothing and housing. A husband owes it to his wife, and in the Hanafi school to a divorcee during her iddah.
Talaq raj'i / ba'in طلاقِ رجعی / بائن
Also: revocable / irrevocable divorce
A revocable divorce (raj'i) allows the husband to take his wife back during iddah without a new nikah. An irrevocable one (ba'in) ends the marriage immediately; remarriage needs a new nikah (and after three talaqs, is not possible without an intervening marriage).
Khula خلع
Also: khul
A separation the wife seeks in exchange for giving something back, usually the mahr. It counts as an irrevocable divorce and has the same iddah.
Hidad سوگ
Also: mourning
Avoiding adornment, perfume and jewellery during iddah. Required of a widow, and in the Hanafi school also of a woman in the iddah of an irrevocable divorce.
Bulugh بلوغت
Also: baligh, balighah, puberty
Puberty, when religious obligations begin. For a girl in the Hanafi school: her first period, a wet dream or pregnancy, from nine lunar years; otherwise on completing fifteen lunar years.
Qada قضا
Also: making up
Making up a missed act of worship. Fasts missed during haiz and nifas are made up; prayers missed during them are not.