Islamic Fiqh > Marriage and family > Iddah (the waiting period) > The pregnant woman whose husband dies: her iddah ends with delivery
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Updated on 25 September 2026 at 3:23 PM
This part belongs to the full section: All sections of this part.
This page is a translation of eleven entries from the Encyclopaedia of Islamic Jurisprudence (al-Mawsua al-fiqhiyya) devoted to the iddah, the waiting period observed by a woman after the end of her marriage. It covers the pregnant woman whose husband dies, the pregnancy that ends the iddah, remarriage during postnatal bleeding, the debate over the quru' (menstruations or periods of purity), the woman whose menses stop or become spaced out, medicine taken to bring on menstruation, and the iddah of the widow who is not pregnant. The schools' positions are given with their evidence, their classical references and the hadiths that support them.
Imam Ibn Qudamah relates: the scholars of every era agreed that the waiting period of a divorced pregnant woman ends when she delivers her burden, and the same applies to every separation that occurs during the husband's lifetime (al-Mughni 8/95).
Second case: the pregnant woman whose husband dies. The jurists of the four schools, and others among the scholars, agreed: if a woman is pregnant by her husband and he dies, her iddah ends with delivery, whether she is free or a slave, Muslim or disbeliever, even if it occurs an hour after his death; by the words of Allah, the Most High:
"And those who are pregnant: their waiting period ends when they lay down their burden."
Surah At-Talaq, 4
Sulayman ibn Yasir related that Abu Salamah ibn Abd al-Rahman and Ibn Abbas met at Abu Hurayrah's and spoke of the woman who delivers a few nights after her husband's death. Ibn Abbas said: "Her iddah is the longer of the two terms." Abu Salamah said: "She is already free." They disputed over this, and Abu Hurayrah said: "I am with my nephew," meaning Abu Salamah. They sent Kurayb, Ibn Abbas's client, to ask Umm Salamah about it. He returned and informed them that Umm Salamah had said: Subay'ah al-Aslamiyyah delivered a few nights after her husband's death, and when she mentioned it to the Prophet (peace be upon him), he ordered her to remarry.Reported by Bukhari (4626) and Muslim (1485)
Ibn Shihab relates that Ubayd Allah ibn Abd Allah ibn Utbah told him that his father wrote to Umar ibn Abd Allah ibn Arqam al-Zuhri ordering him to go and question Subay'ah bint al-Harith al-Aslamiyyah about her story and about what the Prophet had said to her when she consulted him. Umar wrote back that Subay'ah had told him the following: she was the wife of Sa'd ibn Khawlah, a man of Banu Amir ibn Lu'ayy who had taken part in the battle of Badr; he died during the Farewell Pilgrimage while she was pregnant, and she soon delivered after his death. Once purified from her lochia, she adorned herself for suitors. Abu al-Sanabil ibn Ba'kak, a man of Banu Abd al-Dar, said to her: "What do I see? You are adorning yourself! Do you hope to remarry? By Allah, you will not marry until four months and ten days have passed over you." She gathered her clothes in the evening, went to the Prophet and asked him; he declared her free as soon as she laid down her burden and ordered her to marry if she wished. Ibn Shihab concluded: I therefore see no harm in her marrying as soon as she delivers, even if she is still bleeding, provided her husband does not approach her until she is purified (reported by Muslim, 1484).
Imam Ibn al-Mundhir said: they differed over the term of the pregnant woman whose husband dies. Most of the scholars say: her term is that she delivers, even a day or an hour after her husband's death. This is the view of Umar ibn al-Khattab, Ibn Mas'ud, Ibn Umar, Abu Hurayrah, Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib, al-Zuhri, Qatadah, Malik, Sufyan al-Thawri, al-Harith al-Ukli, al-Awza'i, al-Shafi'i, Abu Thawr, Abu Ubayd and the people of opinion (al-Ishraf 'ala madhahib al-'ulama', 5/351). Abu Bakr said: this is our view, on the strength of the apparent meaning of the verse and of the Prophet's permission to Subay'ah to remarry, even though she delivered only a few nights after her husband's death.
A second view exists: the end of her iddah is the longer of the two terms; this is narrated from Ali and Ibn Abbas. A group of scholars disapproved of a woman in lochia marrying while she is still bleeding: al-Hasan al-Basri, al-Sha'bi and Hammad; the other scholars permitted her marriage even during her bleeding, and Abu Bakr said: this is our view.
Imam al-Baghawi said: when the woman whose husband dies is pregnant, her iddah is delivery according to most of the Companions and those who came after them. It is narrated from Ali and Ibn Abbas that she waits for the last of the two terms: delivery, or four months and ten days. Ibn Mas'ud said: "The short Surah of al-Nisa, that is At-Talaq, was revealed after the long one": the verse on pregnant women came down after the one in al-Baqarah ("those who die and leave behind wives"), and most of the jurists specified the verse by the hadith of Subay'ah (Tafsir al-Baghawi 1/215).
Imam Abu Bakr al-Jassas relates that Umm Salamah said: Subay'ah bint al-Harith delivered forty nights after her husband's death, and the Prophet ordered her to remarry. Mansur related from Ibrahim, from al-Aswad, from Abu al-Sanabil ibn Ba'kak, that Subay'ah bint al-Harith laid down her burden twenty and odd nights after her husband's death, and that the Prophet ordered her to marry; this hadith has come through authentic chains of transmission which no one may turn away from, reinforced by the apparent meaning of the Book (Ahkam al-Quran 2/120). He adds: the early generations and those after them do not differ over the fact that the iddah of the divorced pregnant woman is delivery; they differed over the woman whose husband dies: Ali and Ibn Abbas say she waits for the longer of the two terms, while Umar, Ibn Mas'ud, Ibn Umar, Abu Mas'ud al-Badri and Abu Hurayrah say: "Her iddah is the pregnancy; as soon as she delivers, she becomes free for suitors," and this is the view of the jurists of the great cities (Ahkam al-Quran 5/354).
Imam al-Kasani said: the iddah of pregnancy ends with delivery, for the woman whose husband has died, according to the generality of scholars and the generality of the Companions (Bada'i al-Sana'i 3/196). The vizier Ibn Hubayrah said: they agreed that the iddah of the pregnant woman, whether widowed or divorced, ends with delivery (al-Ifsah 2/199). Imam al-Qurtubi said: the iddah of the pregnant woman whose husband dies is delivery, according to the majority of scholars (Tafsir al-Qurtubi 3/174).
Imam Ibn Rushd said: the majority and all the jurists of the great cities hold that the iddah of the widowed pregnant woman is delivery, referring to the generality of the verse of At-Talaq even though it concerns divorce, and relying as well on the hadith of Umm Salamah: Subay'ah al-Aslamiyyah delivered half a month after her husband's death, and the Prophet said to her: "You are free; marry whom you wish." Malik narrated from Ibn Abbas that her iddah is the last of the two terms, meaning the farther one: either delivery, or the iddah of death; the same is narrated from Ali. Their proof is that this is what reconciling the generality of the verse on pregnant women with the verse on death requires (Bidayat al-Mujtahid 2/72).
Imam al-Nawawi, commenting on the hadith of Subay'ah, said: the great names among the scholars, early and late, took it up: the iddah of the widow ends with delivery, to the point that if she delivered a moment after her husband's death, even before he was washed, her iddah would be over and remarriage would become lawful for her at once. This is the view of Malik, al-Shafi'i, Abu Hanifah, Ahmad and all the scholars, except the narration from Ali, Ibn Abbas and Sahnun the Maliki: her iddah is the longer of the two terms, namely four months and ten days and delivery; and except what is narrated from al-Sha'bi, al-Hasan, Ibrahim al-Nakha'i and Hammad: her marriage is not valid until she is purified from her lochia.
The proof of the majority is the hadith of Subay'ah, which specifies the generality of the verse of al-Baqarah and shows that the verse of At-Talaq is general for the divorced woman as for the widow and remains in its generality. When two generalities conflict, one must return to a weighing factor to specify one of them, and here we have the hadith of Subay'ah, which specifies the four months and ten days and applies them to the woman who is not pregnant. As for the proof of al-Sha'bi and his supporters, it is what Muslim reports in this chapter: she said: "The Prophet informed me that I was free at the very moment I laid down my burden": this is explicit that the iddah ends with delivery itself. If they appeal to the words "when she was purified from her lochia," the answer is that this is an account of the time of her question and carries no legal weight; the proof lies in the Prophet's statement that she was free when she delivered, without his attributing the ruling to purification from lochia (Sharh Sahih Muslim 10/109).
Al-Amrani said: when the iddah is owed by a divorced woman, she is necessarily either pregnant or capable of menstruation. If she is pregnant, her iddah ends only with delivery, free or slave, by the verse of At-Talaq, and because the iddah is intended to secure the purity of the womb, which delivery brings about; proof: the Prophet's words concerning the captives: "A pregnant captive is not to be approached until she has delivered, nor a captive in waiting until she has her menses." If the pregnancy is a single child, the iddah does not end until all of it has come out: if part comes out without the rest and the husband takes her back before the separation is complete, his revocation is valid, for she has not yet laid down her burden (al-Bayan 11/9).
Ibn Qudamah adds: they agreed that the term of the widowed pregnant woman is delivery, with the exception of Ibn Abbas, and of a broken narration from Ali that she waits for the longer of the two terms. Abu al-Sanabil ibn Ba'kak said this during the Prophet's lifetime and the Prophet refuted his words; and Ibn Abbas is reported to have returned to the community's view when the hadith of Subay'ah reached him (al-Mughni 8/95).
Shams al-Din Ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi said: every woman pregnant by a husband, separated from him by divorce, annulment or death, free or slave, Muslim or disbeliever, counts her iddah by delivery, by the verse of At-Talaq. This is the consensus of the people of Madinah, except what is narrated from Ibn Abbas and Ali: the widowed pregnant woman waits for the longer of the two terms, a word of Abu al-Sanabil spoken during the Prophet's lifetime and refuted by him, and Ibn Abbas is reported to have retracted it. Al-Hasan and al-Sha'bi disapproved of marriage while she is bleeding, and it is narrated from Ishaq and Hammad that her iddah does not end until she is purified. The rest of the scholars rejected this view and said: if she delivers an hour after her husband's death, remarriage becomes lawful for her, but her husband may not approach her until she is purified from her lochia and has washed, by the verse of At-Talaq. Ubayy ibn Ka'b related: "I said to the Prophet: does the verse on pregnant women concern the woman divorced three times, or the widow? He replied: it concerns the woman divorced three times and the widow." Ibn Mas'ud said: "Let whoever wishes contest me: the verse of At-Talaq was revealed after the one of al-Baqarah": this verse is therefore the later one and prevails over the generality of the earlier verse, which it specifies.
Abd Allah ibn Arqam relates another version of the account of Subay'ah: she was the wife of Sa'd ibn Khawlah, who died during the Farewell Pilgrimage while she was pregnant; she delivered shortly after and, once purified from her lochia, adorned herself for suitors. Abu al-Sanabil ibn Ba'kak objected that she would not remarry until four months and ten days had passed; she then consulted the Prophet, who declared her free as soon as she laid down her burden and permitted her to marry if she wished (an account agreed upon by Bukhari and Muslim).
Ibn Abd al-Barr said: this hadith is good and authentic (hasan sahih), having come through multiple routes all of which are established, except what is narrated from Ibn Abbas and from Ali through a broken chain. Since the pregnant woman is in a waiting period, her iddah ends with delivery as for the divorced woman: the iddah was only legislated to establish the purity of the womb, and delivery is the clearest proof of that purity; moreover, no one differs over the fact that the iddah persists as long as the pregnancy persists, so it must end with it (al-Sharh al-Kabir 9/79-80).
The scholars agreed: if the woman expels something known to be a child whose formation is visible, her iddah ends. Imam Ibn al-Mundhir said: all those whose words we preserve, among the scholars, agreed that a woman's iddah ends with the miscarried fetus once it is known to be a child (al-Ishraf 'ala madhahib al-'ulama' 5/352; al-Ijma' 86). The scholars then divided within each school: must the fetus's formation be visible or not?
Al-Mudawwanah al-kubrah relates: Malik said: whatever the women affirm to be a mudghah, an 'alaqah, or anything about which it is certain that it is a child, ends the iddah, and the slave woman thereby becomes a mother of a child. Asked about the woman who says "I have miscarried" while the husband replies "you have not miscarried; I retain the right to take you back," Malik answered: the word given is that of the woman, for such a miscarriage hardly escapes the notice of women and their neighbors (al-Mudawwanah al-kubrah 5/330). Ibn Abd al-Barr said: what she expels as a mudghah or an 'alaqah frees her according to Malik and his companions, the view likewise of Ibrahim al-Nakha'i and others; al-Shafi'i, his companions and Ahmad ibn Hanbal say: she only becomes free by expelling what shows an element of human formation, and this is the view of al-Hasan al-Basri and others (al-Tamhid 15/83).
The Shafi'is say: the iddah ends with the expulsion of a dead child bearing a visible human trait, such as an eye or a fingernail, as it does for a living child, by the generality of the verse. It does not end with the 'alaqah, which is sperm transformed in the womb into thick blood: it is not a pregnancy, it is only blood. It ends with the mudghah, which is the 'alaqah transformed into a piece of flesh; al-Zamakhshari said it takes its name from its smallness, comparable to what one chews. A hidden human form, revealed by the testimony of competent midwives, equals a visible form; if the midwives say, perceiving no form, "it is the origin of a human being; had it remained it would have taken form," the iddah ends according to the school's explicit position, for the purity of the womb is thereby established; if they doubt, the iddah never ends thereby. If the spouses disagree over what she has expelled, the word given is that of the woman with her oath, whether her husband lies or not, for she is trusted in this matter as she is trusted in the very fact of the miscarriage (al-Bayan 11/10-11; Rawdat al-talibin 5/712-713; al-Najm al-wahhaj 8/136-137; Mughni al-muhtaj 5/90-91; Tuhfat al-muhtaj 10/28-29; al-Dibaj 3/558-559).
As for the Hanbalis, Imam Ibn Qudamah said: the pregnancy that ends the iddah is that which shows an element of human formation, whether the woman is free or a slave (al-Mughni 8/96-97). In sum, the woman who expels something after separation from her husband falls into five situations:
The minimum duration of a pregnancy that ends the iddah is eighty days from the moment intercourse became possible, for the Prophet said:
The creation of every one of you is gathered in his mother's womb: forty days as a drop of sperm (nutfah), then forty more as a clot of blood ('alaqah), then forty more as a lump of flesh (mudghah).Reported by Bukhari and Muslim
The iddah therefore does not end with anything less than the mudghah, hence the delay of eighty days; beyond four months there is no problem at all, for it belongs to the fourth stage of formation (al-Mughni 8/96-97).
The jurists of the four schools agreed: once the pregnant woman has laid down her burden, marriage becomes lawful for her, even an hour after delivery, even if she is still bleeding; purification from lochia is not a condition for the validity of her marriage.
Imam Ibn al-Mundhir said: a group of scholars disapproved of the woman in lochia marrying while she is bleeding: al-Hasan al-Basri, al-Sha'bi and Hammad; the other scholars permitted her marriage even during her bleeding, and Abu Bakr said: this is our view (al-Ishraf 'ala madhahib al-'ulama' 5/351). Imam al-Jassas likewise recalls: the early generations and those after them do not differ over the iddah of the divorced pregnant woman, which is delivery; they differed over the widowed pregnant woman: Ali and Ibn Abbas say she waits for the longer of the two terms, while Umar, Ibn Mas'ud, Ibn Umar, Abu Mas'ud al-Badri and Abu Hurayrah say: "Her iddah is the pregnancy; as soon as she delivers, she becomes free for husbands," and this is the view of the jurists of the great cities (Ahkam al-Quran 5/354).
Imam al-Nawawi, commenting on the hadith of Subay'ah, said: the great names among the scholars, early and late, took it up: the iddah of the widow ends with delivery, to the point that if she delivered a moment after her husband's death, even before he was washed, her iddah would be over and remarriage would become lawful for her at once. This is the view of Malik, al-Shafi'i, Abu Hanifah, Ahmad and all the scholars, except the narration from Ali, Ibn Abbas and Sahnun the Maliki: her iddah is the longer of the two terms, namely four months and ten days and delivery; and except what is narrated from al-Sha'bi, al-Hasan, Ibrahim al-Nakha'i and Hammad: her marriage is not valid until she is purified from her lochia (Sharh Sahih Muslim 10/109). The proof of the majority is the hadith of Subay'ah, which specifies the generality of the verse of al-Baqarah and shows that the verse of At-Talaq is general for the divorced woman as for the widow; and what Muslim reports, "The Prophet informed me that I was free at the very moment I laid down my burden," is explicit that the iddah ends with delivery itself, the mention of purification from lochia being only an account of the time of her question.
Imam Ibn Qudamah said: al-Hasan and al-Sha'bi disapproved of marriage while she is bleeding, and it is narrated from Ishaq and Hammad that her iddah does not end until she is purified. The rest of the scholars rejected this view and said: if she delivers an hour after her husband's death, remarriage becomes lawful for her, but her husband may not approach her until she is purified from her lochia and has washed, by the verse of At-Talaq (al-Mughni 8/95).
Imam Ibn Qudamah said: the iddah of the divorced woman, if she is free and belongs to the women who have quru', is three quru', without disagreement among the scholars; by the words of Allah, the Most High:
"Divorced women shall wait by themselves for three quru'."
Surah al-Baqarah, 228
The qur' (plural quru') denotes in Arabic both menstruation and the period of purity: it is one of the shared nouns. Ahmad ibn Yahya al-Tha'lab said: the quru' are terms; the singular is qur', which may be a menstruation or a purity, for each of the two arrives at a term (al-Mughni 8/81). Imam al-Jassas explains: early and late generations do not differ over the fact that this name applies to both meanings; first because the term admits them both, the early generations, masters of language and of the meanings of names, having interpreted it in both directions; then because this disagreement was widespread among them without anyone denying his opponents the right to their opinion, which proves that the term carries both meanings and that ijtihad is permissible in it (Ahkam al-Quran 2/55-56). Ibn Battal adds: the masters of the language do not differ: the Arabs call menstruation qur', purity qur', and the period encompassing both qur'; since the term admits these meanings, the proof of what Allah intends by "three quru'" must be sought (Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari of Ibn Battal 7/487).
The jurists of the four schools differed over what the quru' owed by the divorced woman are, and consequently over when the husband's right of revocation ceases. Whoever says the qur' is the purity (Malikis and Shafi'is) holds that the iddah ends as soon as she enters the third menstruation and that remarriage becomes lawful. Whoever says the qur' is the menstruation (Hanafis and Hanbalis) holds that the husband may take her back until she has washed from her third menstruation, for washing grants her a ruling of the pure, namely the lawfulness of prayer.
First view: the qur' is the menstruation (view of the Hanafis and Hanbalis)
If a man divorces his wife after consummation, her iddah is three menstruations, excluding the one during which she was divorced if the divorce occurred during her menses; when she washes from the third menstruation, her iddah is complete and remarriage becomes lawful for her. This view is narrated from Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, Umar ibn al-Khattab, Ali ibn Abi Talib, Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud, Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, Mu'adh ibn Jabal, Abu al-Darda, Ubadah ibn al-Samit, Ibn Abbas and a group of Successors of the Hijaz, Syria and Iraq: the divorced woman only becomes free for husbands by washing from the third menstruation.
The proof first cited is the Prophet's saying:
The iddah of the slave woman is two menstruations.Weak hadith, reported by Abu Dawud (2189), al-Tirmidhi (1182) and Ibn Majah (2079)
The slave woman differs from the free woman only in number, not in the kind of thing by which the iddah is counted. It is added that Allah's text bears on the number three, a precise number that can denote neither more nor less, and on the plural: applying it to purities would make it bear on two purities and part of a third, which is a reversal, whereas the complete plural is three, which it truly contains.
Then come the hadiths of the Prophet:
Urwa ibn al-Zubayr relates that Fatimah bint Abi Hubaysh came to complain to the Prophet of continuous bleeding; he said to her: "It is only a vein. When your qur' comes, do not pray; when the qur' has passed, purify yourself, then pray between one qur' and the next."Authentic hadith, reported by Abu Dawud (280), al-Nasa'i (211), Ibn Majah (620) and Ahmad (27671)
The woman with continuous bleeding leaves the prayer on the days of her quru', then washes and performs ablution for each prayer, fasts and prays.Authentic hadith, reported by Abu Dawud (297), al-Tirmidhi (126) and Ibn Majah (625)
The Prophet thus made menstruation a qur'. Alqamah relates from Ibn Mas'ud this scene: a man and a woman came to Umar; the man said: "I divorced my wife and then took her back." She replied: "What keeps me from saying what happened? He divorced me and left me until I had my third menstruation, the blood had stopped, I had closed my door, prepared my bath and taken off my clothes; then he knocked at the door and said: I take you back." Umar asked Ibn Mas'ud to rule, and he said: "I hold that the revocation is valid so long as prayer has not become lawful for her." Umar said: "Had you said otherwise, I would not have deemed it right." Makhul relates that Abu Bakr, Umar, Ali, Ibn Mas'ud, Abu al-Darda, Ubadah ibn al-Samit and Abd Allah ibn Qays al-Ash'ari held that a man who divorces his wife once or twice remains more entitled to take her back until she washes from the third menstruation, and that they inherited from one another as long as she was in her iddah.
The name qur' applies to menstruation, for a woman only becomes one of "the women with quru'" by menstruating; this is why the woman divorced during a menstruation does not count that qur' and owes three complete quru'. Allah also says of those who have ceased to menstruate: "their waiting period is three months" (Surah At-Talaq, 4), setting each month against a menstruation and tying the ruling to the absence of menstruation, not to the absence of purity. And the Prophet said of the captives of Awtas:
A pregnant captive is not to be approached until she has delivered, and one who is not pregnant until she has had one menstruation.Authentic hadith, reported by Abu Dawud (2157), al-Darimi (2295), Ahmad (3/62) and al-Bayhaqi (5/329)
The primary purpose of the iddah is istibra', that is, the clearing of the womb, even though it has other benefits; and for the honor of the free married woman, the established sign of her womb's purity was set at three cycles. If the qur' were the purity, the first purity would prove nothing: if the man consummated the marriage during a purity, then divorced, and the woman menstruated, that menstruation would be counted as a qur' by those who say "the quru' are the purities," and it proves nothing; what proves purity is the menstruation occurring after the divorce, and the iddah cannot precede the divorce that is its cause. Now the proof established by the Sunnah is that the slave woman's istibra' is by one menstruation, and this istibra' takes, for her, the place of the free woman's iddah. It is answered that counting the free woman's iddah by menstruation is even more fitting for two reasons: the precaution is greater by the repetition of the qur' three times, and the slave's istibra' is an offshoot of the free woman's iddah, established by the Quran, whereas the istibra' is established only by the Sunnah. Moreover, signs and rulings change with menstruation, not with purity: purity is the original state, and what persists acquires no specific ruling; thus counting as a qur' the purity preceding the first menstruation is invalid.
The Hanafis specify: if her days of menstruation are ten days, which is their maximum in their view, the revocation is not valid and she becomes free at the mere cessation of the blood of the third menstruation, even without washing, for nothing beyond ten days is menstruation; if the blood stops before ten days, the revocation remains until she washes, for the blood may return within that span. The revocation also ceases through the coming due of a ruling of the pure: if the time of a prayer elapses, the prayer becomes a debt upon her, and it is owed only by the pure; this when the blood stops at the beginning of the time, otherwise the minimal time within which she can wash and pray is considered. Or if she performs tayammum and prays, even a supererogatory prayer, while traveling or for an excuse according to Abu Hanifah and Abu Yusuf; Muhammad said that tayammum for an excuse breaks the revocation even without prayer (Bada'i al-Sana'i 3/183-184; al-Jawharah al-nirah 4/482-483; al-Ikhtiyar 3/183; Sharh Fath al-Qadir 4/308; Tabyin al-haqa'iq 3/26-27; al-Lubab 2/101).
It is related from Imam Ahmad that the woman remains bound by her iddah and by her husband's right of revocation until the time of the prayer in which she purified herself has elapsed; another narration says that her iddah ends with the mere purity of the third menstruation, independent of washing. The apparent view among the Hanbalis is that the revocation remains as long as she has not washed, even if she neglected washing for years; the judge Sharik said: twenty years; al-Zarkashi said this is the apparent statement of al-Khiraqi and a group, for intercourse with the wife during washing from menses is unlawful on account of the trace of blood. As for the other effects, such as the cutting off of inheritance, definitive divorce, li'an or maintenance, they take place at the mere cessation of blood (al-Mughni 8/83-84; Majmu' al-fatawa 20/479; Zad al-ma'ad 5/611-615; Kashshaf al-qina' 5/399; Sharh Muntaha al-iradat 5/509; Matalib uli al-nuha 5/480; al-Rawd al-murbi' 2/412; Manar al-sabil 3/122).
Second view: the qur' is the purity (view of the Malikis, the Shafi'is, and of Ahmad in one narration)
It is the purities that elapse between two menstruations which are called quru'. This view is narrated from Dawud ibn Ali and Ibn Hazm, and from the Companions Aishah, Zayd ibn Thabit and Abd Allah ibn Umar, as well as from Ibn Abbas; and it is the view of al-Qasim, Salim, Aban ibn Uthman, Abu Bakr ibn Abd al-Rahman, Sulayman ibn Yasir, Urwa ibn al-Zubayr, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, Ibn Shihab, Rabi'ah and Yahya ibn Sa'id, all of whom said: "The quru' are the purities." The divorced woman becomes free for husbands and leaves her iddah upon entering the blood of the third menstruation, according to the sound view; another opinion holds that a day and a night must elapse. It makes no difference whether a day, less, more, an hour or a moment remains of the purity in which she was divorced: she counts it as a qur', by "Divorce them for their waiting period" (Surah At-Talaq, 1), that is, within it.
The reasons are that divorce was only placed in the state of purity so as not to harm the woman and lengthen her iddah; that what is sought from the purity is the arrival of the blood announcing the health of the womb, the duration of the purity meaning nothing; that the Prophet permitted divorcing the pure wife without consummation without specifying beginning or end, as in the hadith of Ibn Umar: "When she purifies herself, let him divorce her if he wishes or retain her if he wishes"; and that the known sense in the Arabic language is gathering, as in "you gathered the water in the basin" and "you gathered the Quran (reciting it)," the time of the gathering of blood being the time of purity. The decisive proof is the hadith of Ibn Umar: the Prophet ordered him to divorce his wife in a state of purity and said: "That is the waiting period Allah ordained for the divorcing of women," while forbidding him to divorce during menses; the iddah is therefore the purities.
The hadiths of the Companions who held the purities have authentic chains: Ibn Shihab related from Urwa and others, from Aishah: "The quru' are the purities." Zayd ibn Thabit said: "When she enters the blood of the third menstruation, she is clear of him and he is clear of her: she does not inherit from him and he does not inherit from her." Malik related from Nafi' that Ibn Umar said: "When a man divorces his wife and she enters the blood of the third menstruation, she is clear of him and he is clear of her: she does not inherit from him and he does not inherit from her"; Ibn Umar also related from the Prophet: "That is the waiting period Allah ordained for the divorcing of women," concerning the wife he had divorced while she was menstruating, an episode in which Ibn Umar was himself the protagonist and in which Zayd ibn Thabit, Aishah and the majority of the Successors of Madinah shared his view. Preference is given to the views of Aishah and Ibn Umar: Aishah knew best the condition of women through her closeness to the Prophet, and Ibn Umar knew best the affair of divorce during menses which he had lived through.
Moreover, they agreed that divorce in the Sunnah way is performed upon a pure wife without consummation, and that every woman in iddah, divorced or widowed, counts from the moment of divorce or of death. The holders of the menstruation view then add to her three quru' the purity of the divorce, which contradicts the Book and the Sunnah: on their view, before the first menstruation the woman would not be in iddah at all. It follows that if she is divorced in a state of purity, her iddah ends upon seeing the blood of the third menstruation, according to the sound view; an opinion among the Shafi'is and the Hanbalis requires a day and a night after entering the third menstruation, which is their minimum of menstruation. If she is divorced during her menses, even if nothing remains of them, her iddah ends with the entry into a fourth menstruation, for what remains of a menstruation is never counted as a qur'.
Ibn Qudamah said: if the quru' are the purities, the iddah of the woman divorced in purity ends upon seeing the blood of the third menstruation, and the one divorced during her menses counts a fourth. This is the view of Zayd ibn Thabit, Ibn Umar, Aishah, al-Qasim ibn Muhammad, Salim ibn Abd Allah, Aban ibn Uthman, Malik and Abu Thawr, and the apparent view of al-Shafi'i; it is also related from him that a day and a night must elapse, out of fear that the blood may be blood of illness, and the judge relates this as a possibility in our school too. The answer: Allah fixed the iddah at three quru', and any addition contradicts the text; this blood is ruled to be menstruation for the suspension of prayer, the prohibition to the husband and the other rulings of menstruation, and so too for the end of the iddah; and if they refrained from ruling until certainty, then as soon as it is known to be menstruation, the iddah has already ended at the moment she saw the blood. As with "if you menstruate, you are divorced": some count the day and night into the iddah, others do not but bar her from marriage for a day and a night; the sounder view is that it does not belong to it, but that marriage is barred to her for a day and a night, and the revocation is not valid (al-Mughni 8/48).
Imam Ibn Rushd said: they differed over what the quru' are. The holders of the purities are, among the jurists of the great cities, Malik, al-Shafi'i, the majority of the people of Madinah, Abu Thawr and others; among the Companions, Ibn Umar, Zayd ibn Thabit and Aishah. The holders of the menstruation are, among the jurists, Abu Hanifah, al-Thawri, al-Awza'i, Ibn Abi Layla and others; among the Companions, Ali, Umar ibn al-Khattab, Ibn Mas'ud and Abu Musa al-Ash'ari. Al-Athram relates from Ahmad that the senior Companions of the Prophet said the quru' are the menstruation, and relates from al-Sha'bi that it is the view of eleven or twelve Companions of the Prophet. The narration from Ahmad diverged: he first held that they are the purities, following Zayd ibn Thabit, Ibn Umar and Aishah, then he hesitated because of the view of Ibn Mas'ud and Ali that they are the menstruations. The difference between the two views is that on the purities view, she becomes free upon entering the third menstruation; on the menstruations view, she only becomes free when it is complete.
The cause of the disagreement is the shared name qur'. The holders of the purities argue that the plural quru' belongs specifically to the qur' of purity, the plural of the qur' of menstruation being aqraa', as related from Ibn al-Anbari; that menstruation is of feminine gender and purity of masculine gender, the plural letter not attaching to the plural of the feminine below ten; and that derivation shows it, the qur' coming from "gathering the water in the basin," the time of the gathering of blood being the time of purity. The holders of the menstruation argue that "three quru'" requires the completeness of each qur', whereas with the purities the iddah could be two purities and part of a qur', the name "three" applying only by way of concession; yet the menstruation in which she was divorced is never counted. The experts judged that the verse is ambiguous on this and that the proof must be sought elsewhere. The strongest for the purities is the hadith of Ibn Umar: "Order him to take her back until she menstruates, then purifies herself, then menstruates, then purifies herself; then, if he wishes, let him divorce her before touching her: that is the waiting period Allah ordained for the divorcing of women," together with their consensus that the Sunnah divorce occurs only in a purity without contact; "that is the iddah" may also be interpreted as "that is the time of entering the iddah." The strongest for the menstruations is that the iddah was only legislated for the purity of the womb, which comes about through menstruation and not through the purities, which is why the iddah of the woman whose menstruation has ceased is counted in months. The Hanafi school is the clearest as to the meaning, their transmitted proofs being equal; and those who say the iddah is the purities agree that it ends upon entering the third menstruation.
Among the holders of the menstruation view, they differ over when the iddah ends: some say it ends with the cessation of the blood of the third menstruation, the view of al-Awza'i; others, when she washes from the third, the view of Umar ibn al-Khattab, Ali and Ibn Mas'ud among the Companions, and of al-Thawri and Ishaq ibn Ubayd among the jurists; others, when the time of the prayer in which she purified herself has elapsed; others still, that the husband retains the right of revocation even if she neglected washing for twenty years, a word related from Sharik; and it is also said that it ends with the entry into the third menstruation, an anomalous view (Bidayat al-Mujtahid 2/67-68).