Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

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One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

Assalamualeykum Dear brother .

I have a child now and my parents are insisiting that there is a 40 day significance, were the girls house invites the grooms house for a lunch or diner were the girl wears new dress and offers salah as after 40 days the girl is normal after the birth of the child .

is there any significance that a women has to cleansen one self and start praying salah after 40 days of child birth. when can a women start offering salah after she delivers a child ?

Please reply

Awatiing to hear from you , your brother in islam.

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Answer:

Period time after childbirth

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

Your Question: ….I have a child now and my parents are insisiting that there is a 40 day significance, were the girls house invites the grooms house for a lunch or diner were the girl wears new dress and offers salah as after 40 days the girl is normal after the birth of the child .

Firstly, there is absolutely no stipulation that a woman who has given birth must observe her post-childbirth period for 40 days! If the post-childbirth bleeding of the woman stops before 40 days, she must purify herself with a ‘ghusl’ or full bath and start offering her prayers as normal.

The scholars and jurists in Islam have determined that the maximum a woman who has given birth must wait is 40 days…..but if her post-childbirth bleeding stops before 40 days, she must purify herself and make herself available for prayers.

There is absolutely nothing in the Sunnah which prescribes a ritual or a commemoration after childbirth, whereby the wife’s family has to invite the wife’s in-laws for a meal, or that the girl has to wear new clothes, or that she has to offer a ‘special’ salaah to commemorate the occasion! These are no more than self-invented rites and rituals of the ignorant and have absolutely no basis in the Sunnah.

Your Question: ….when can a women start offering salah after she delivers a child ?

Whenever the post-childbirth bleeding stops, the woman is to purify herself by taking a ‘ghusl’ or full bath and make herself available for her prayers. The maximum number of days a woman may wait after childbirth is 40 days as stipulated by the scholars and jurists in Islam.

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me alone. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your brother and well wisher in Islam,

Burhan