Question 1600) - If he says, "If you menstruate you are divorced/ If you menstruate a menses period then you are divorced," what is the status of these conditions?

A: They have two separate rulings.
When he says, "If you menstruate you are divorced," and she sees her menstrual blood, the divorce does not occur until she bleeds for three days and nights. Upon the completion of the three days and nights it will be ruled in retrospect that the divorce fell upon the bleeding. That is because bleeding for less than that is not menstruation, but is istihadah. That is why she must wait for the minimum period of menses.
When he adds, "...a menses period...?then she is not divorced until she enters her purity after her menses. The difference between the two lies in the additional words will stipulate a complete menstruation.

~ al-Quduri ~