Signs of tuhr: how to know your period has ended

The short answerPurity is known by one of two signs: the white discharge (al-qassa al-bayda) that follows bleeding, or dryness — nothing on checking. Either one is enough. It is not known by counting days, and every woman's pattern differs and shifts month to month.

Two signs, and no third

Once bleeding stops, the end of menstruation is known by one of two signs:

The white discharge (al-qassa al-bayda) — a clear white fluid that comes at the end of a period. A woman recognises it from her own pattern.
Dryness (al-jafaf) — placing a piece of cotton and it comes away clean: no blood, no yellow, nothing murky.

Either sign is sufficient on its own; both are not required. The basis for this is what Imam Malik reported in the Muwatta: women would send Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) a small box containing cotton, and she would tell them, “Do not hurry until you see the white discharge.”

Purity is known by one of two signs, not by counting days — and either one is enough.

It is not a number of days

The question that comes up more than any other is: how many days after the last day of blood? The answer is that a count is not the sign. The four schools agree that the end of menstruation is known by the sign. Where they differ is on the shortest and longest a period can be — a disagreement that matters to a woman whose bleeding runs unusually long or unusually short, not to one who sees the sign at her usual time.

School	Shortest	Longest
Hanafi	Three days	Ten days
Maliki	No fixed minimum, even a single instance	Fifteen days, with detail for a woman with an established pattern
Shafi'i	A day and a night	Fifteen days
Hanbali	A day and a night	Fifteen days

The shortest and longest menstruation, across the four schools

Yellow and murky discharge

Sufra is a yellowish fluid; kudra is a murky colour between yellow and dark. What the jurists build the ruling on is timing: was it seen before the sign of purity, or after it?

Either of them during the days of menstruation, before purity, follows the ruling of menstruation according to the majority. After the sign of purity has been seen, it is not counted as menstruation — on the words of Umm Atiyya (may Allah be pleased with her): “We did not count yellow or murky discharge after purity as anything.” Reported by Abu Dawud.

If you are unsure

Three questions before ghusl

Has the bleeding stopped completely?Stopped, not stopped-and-back-an-hour-later.
Have you seen the white discharge?A clear white fluid at the end of a period, which you recognise from your own pattern.
Or did the cotton come away clean when you checked?No blood, nothing yellow, nothing murky.

The first, with either of the last twoThis is the sign of purity: bleeding stopped, together with the white discharge or dryness. There is no number of days to wait after it.

The bleeding has not stoppedWhile blood is still coming you are still menstruating, even if the colour has lightened. Lightening is not a sign of purity.

Unsure about the signDoubt is not purity. Check again after a while; if the doubt remains, ask a qualified scholar rather than estimating.

What Shaden does

Shaden does not tell you when you became pure — the sign is yours, not an app's. What it does is keep what you log: when bleeding began, when it stopped, what colour it was. So when you ask yourself a month later whether this is usual for you, the answer is in your hand rather than in your memory. It also counts the fasts you owe from the Ramadan that has already passed, which is the sum that gets forgotten eleven months later.