Umm Salamah narrated: "The time of waiting for Nifas during the time of AIlah's Messenger was forty days. We used to cover our faces with reddish-brown Wars".
The waiting period is known as Istibra’ in Arabic which means ‘to abstain’ or ‘to refrain from’ something until it is deemed safe or appropriate to do so. In this case, it refers to abstaining from certain activities until a woman has fully recovered from childbirth and her body has returned back to its normal state. The covering mentioned in this hadith is known as hijab which refers to modest clothing worn by Muslim women when they are outside their homes or around people who are not close family members such as relatives or friends. The color mentioned here is ahmar which translates into reddish-brown color which was commonly used at that time for hijab due its ability to blend in with other colors while still providing enough coverage for modesty purposes.
