Q: If postpartum bleeding stops before the completion of forty days, is a woman permitted to perform Ghusl (ritual bath) and offer Salah (Prayer) even if this bleeding returns before the forty days are over?

A: All praise be to Allah Alone, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger, and his family and Companions. If a woman in the postpartum period sees that she has become pure before the forty days are over, she should take Ghusl and then observe Salah and Sawm (Fasting), and her husband may have sexual intercourse with her. If the bleeding continues after the fortieth day, she should consider herself as having the same ruling as Tahir (ritually pure) women, because forty days is the maximum postpartum period length according to the more correct of the two scholarly views. The blood which continues after the forty days are over is considered irregular bleeding that takes the ruling of Istihadah (abnormal vaginal bleeding outside the menstrual or post-partum period) unless it coincides with the time of her menses, then she should regard it as menstrual blood and she must not observe Salah or Sawm, and it becomes Haram (prohibited) for her husband to have sexual intercourse with her.May Allah grant us success. May peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and Companions.