Assalaamu alaykum. My question is regarding menstrual blood. I had a sister approach me who was extremely conflicted by this situation. The sister states that during her period, the menstrual blood dried up and turned it into little black particles. These particles look exactly like black pepper. She said that she was wearing a pad but that due to the heavy flow of blood, the little dried blood particles got attached to the clothes that she was wearing during menstruation. She washed the impurity from her body but then saw the small dried blood particle on her hands, and even after scraping the particles off of her hands, they did not get removed. After constantly rubbing the impurity off her hand, it was still present. She did not know what to do, so she washed her hand one last time and considered them clean. Is this okay? As for the dirty clothes, she soaked them in water and ran the tap water to wash the clothes because she did not know exactly which part of the clothes had the dried blood particles adhered to it. However, she is sure that the impure particles were present somewhere in her clothes. Now she is not sure whether the impurity of the dried blood particles was washed away or not. Were her clothes rendered clean, and can she perform her prayer in them? She also raised the question that she has dry skin and that even with the use of lotions, her skin is still dry. Sometimes, during her period, she does not wash her private parts with water but just uses the toilet paper. So when she wipes herself with the tissue, she sees small white dandruff-like particles from her skin (which is impure because she urinated from that spot) in the air and on her clothes. The sister also adds that the tissue used to get rid of the impurity releases white flakes too, which get on her clothes when she throws the napkin away. Please help my sister in need, I have told her to make dhikr (expressions of remembrance of Allaah) and supplications.

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. 

We are almost certain that this sister is affected with waswasah (obsessive whisperings), so she must avoid them, not pay any attention to them, and not worry about them at all. She should consider her clothes and her body as pure.

When she performs Istijmaar (wiping her private parts after relieving herself), it is enough for her to wipe three times with a tissue, and then she is ruled to be pure. Afterwards, she should not pay any attention to these doubts and obsessions about those mentioned particles spreading out and so forth; it appears that all this is just an illusion and not a reality.

If we presume that traces of blood, which she is unable to remove, remain on her body or clothes, then this is forgiven, and it does not harm if it remains. So this sister must get rid of these whisperings and purify herself in the usual natural manner without paying any attention to those whisperings and illusions.

For more benefit, please refer to fataawa 92050, 209290 and 206935.

Allaah knows best.