I have not fasted in Ramadhaan for three years because of my irregular menstrual bleeding; I may not menstruate for three or five months then experience menstrual bleeding for a month or two consecutive months. I happened to menstruate during the whole month of Ramadhaan for three years now; do I have to make up for 90 days of fast, or should I make expiation? If expiation is due, how is it done?

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

How strange that the questioner waited for three years quitting praying and fasting for months without hastening to seek the scholars’ advice about her case to know the Islamic ruling in this regard! Allaah The Exalted Says (what means): {So ask the people of the Message if you do not know.} [Quran 16:43]

Undeniably, the Muslim woman is obliged to learn due Islamic principles and duties to perfect her religion and to ensure the soundness of her acts of worship and all her affairs.

Neglecting to ask scholars about your condition resulted in quitting praying and fasting all this time, although you were obliged to pray and fast and had no valid excuse under the Sharee‘ah to give up praying and fasting. The questioner mistakenly thought that this bleeding that lasted for two or three successive months is menstruation, when, in fact, it is not. According to the majority of Muslim scholars, the maximum duration of menstrual bleeding is fifteen days. Hence, if the bleeding lasts more than that, it is considered Istihaadhah (vaginal bleeding outside the menstrual period) which does not prohibit a woman from praying and fasting.

Therefore, you should make up for those prayers and fast-days you have missed; you should make up for the three months of Ramadan that you have missed. If a woman delays making up for the days of fasting that she had missed from Ramadan without a valid reason under Sharee‘ah until the next Ramadan started, then she has to make up for them and make expiation for each fast-day that she had missed. The expiation in that regard is feeding one needy person for each fast-day you missed one measure, which amounts approximately to 750 grams of rice, wheat, or the like of the basic food of your country.

You also have to make up for all the prayers you have missed in the days that exceeded the maximum number of days of the menstrual bleeding, which is fifteen days. For example, if you menstruated for a month or two, then the menstrual bleeding is only fifteen days and you have to make up for the prayers you have missed in the remaining days; for the bleeding on those extra days is considered Istihaadhah.

The fact that you did not know of the maximum duration of the menstrual bleeding does not exempt you from making up for the prayers and the fast-days you have missed; for ignorance and forgetfulness are excused when prohibitions are committed but not when obligations are unfulfilled, and prayer is an obligation.

Allaah Knows best.