How short or long can a period be, Islamically?
The four schools genuinely differ, and the numbers are not interchangeable: the Hanafi position sets a minimum of 3 complete days (72 hours) and a maximum of 10 days (240 hours); the Maliki position has no fixed minimum, even a single spurt can count, with a 15-day maximum; the Shafi'i and Hanbali positions both set a minimum of one day and night (24 hours) and a maximum of 15 days. Bleeding outside your school's window is classified as istihada (non-menstrual bleeding), which changes the worship rules entirely. Your own established habit also matters in how borderline cases get classified, which is exactly the point where a real scholar beats a chart.
My bleeding stops and starts. Do the dry days count as purity?
This is the question the schools answer most differently, so, school by school: the Hanafi method pools bleeding not separated by a full 15 clean days and, if the total exceeds ten days, uses your established habit to sort menstruation from istihada; the sourced Maliki text treats actual clean gaps as purity for worship, you do ghusl and pray when it stops, and stop again if it returns; the Shafi'i position (per the Jordanian Iftaa Department) treats intermittent purity falling inside a qualifying period as still legally menstruation; and the Hanbali treatment counts the flow as menstruation and the clean interval as purity, while cautioning that a pause shorter than a day usually isn't purity without a confirming sign. Neither 'all blood until day 15 counts' nor 'every dry hour is purity' is anyone's actual position. Pick your school's method with a teacher and apply it consistently.
What is istihada, and do I pray with it?
Istihada is the fiqh category for bleeding outside menstruation and postpartum bleeding, a ritual-law classification, not a medical diagnosis. Dar al-Ifta Egypt states it plainly: 'Istihada does not prevent a woman from praying and fasting but requires her to make ablution before each prayer.' The exact wudu mechanics differ by school, the Shafi'i procedure has you clean and protect against the blood and make a fresh wudu after each prayer time begins; the Hanafi chronic-excuse rule kicks in once bleeding meets the school's threshold, after which one wudu lasts the whole prayer time. The headline either way: istihada does not shut down your worship. And separately, new, heavy, painful, prolonged, or otherwise worrying bleeding is a medical question first; fiqh sources cannot diagnose anything.
Can I read Qur'an during my period?
Four separate questions hide in that one, and the schools split on them. Touching a physical mushaf: the sourced Hanafi, Shafi'i, and Hanbali positions prohibit direct touch (the Maliki position too, with documented concessions for teaching and learning). Reciting from memory: the sourced Hanafi and Shafi'i positions restrict recitation as recitation, though verses said with the intention of du'a or dhikr are allowed, while the sourced Maliki position permits recitation while bleeding continues, especially for study and fear of forgetting. Reading from a phone: the cited Hanafi answer permits looking at the text on a screen without reciting aloud, and the Jordanian Shafi'i answer applies its no-recitation rule to screens too; touching the phone itself is fine per IslamQA, since a device isn't a mushaf. Listening to recitation is open to everyone. If you're memorizing and terrified of losing your hifz, that's precisely the case the Maliki concession exists for; ask your teacher.
Can I go to the mosque during my period?
The sourced range: the Hanafi position is not to enter or remain in the area legally designated as the mosque; the cited Maliki attribution prohibits entering including passing through; the Shafi'i and Hanbali positions prohibit remaining but allow passing through when there's no fear of contamination. The practical North American wrinkle that changes everything: most 'mosques' here are Islamic centers where the prayer hall proper is the mosque and the classrooms, gym, offices, and social hall may not share that designation, so the halaqa in the community room can be fine under the very school that restricts the prayer hall. Ask your own mosque what's designated as what, and don't let anyone shame you out of the building entirely on a rule that applies to one room.
I feel spiritually cut off every month. Is that how it's supposed to feel?
No, and the framing matters. The exemption from prayer is obedience, not suspension: resting when commanded to rest is itself worship, the same way breaking the fast at maghrib is. Everything else stays open, du'a (which needs no wudu), dhikr, listening to Qur'an, seeking knowledge, charity, service, the whole rest of the religion. Many women build a deliberate monthly rhythm: a dhikr count, a lecture series, a du'a list for those days. And the guilt some women carry about 'missing' Ramadan nights is answered by the same Sahih Muslim report above: the Lawgiver who ordered the fast also ordered the pause. You are not less Muslim for a week a month; you are Muslim on the schedule you were given.
School positions here are attributed to their published sources (SeekersGuidance, the Jordanian General Iftaa Department, Dar al-Ifta Egypt, and classical texts in translation), school by school; where a school's relied-upon position couldn't be adequately sourced, the cell is blank. Your own case (your habit, your school, your borderline days) belongs with a qualified scholar or teacher, and many communities now have women scholars who answer exactly these questions. And the medical line is bright: fiqh classifies bleeding, it never diagnoses it. New, heavy, prolonged, painful, pregnancy-related, or post-menopausal bleeding goes to a clinician first.