Answer
Wa`alaykum as-salamu wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
1- If the fetus was not shaped or the soul had not yet been breathed into it, then this blood is not considered nifas and thus, you have to wash it off, perform wudu (ablution) and pray.
2- If the fetus was shaped or the soul was breathed into it, whether it was miscarried dead or alive, this blood is considered nifas and you should not pray till it stops.
In his response to your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
First, we console you and hope that Almighty Allah compensates you for this ordeal and grants you a righteous child. You have to know that this ordeal is a trail from Almighty Allah to test your faith and patience.
If your bleeding was not due to menses but it was due to miscarriage at such an early stage, then you should perform prayer; you simply need to wash yourself and perform wudu and pray.
It should only be treated as nifas (postnatal bleeding) if it is preceded by birth. Since it was not due to birth, you can assume that it is not nifas.
However, if the fetus has evolved and is fully formed then it should be treated as bleeding due to nifas.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.