Thus, in the first two cases, the marriage remains valid, and there is no difficulty. As for the latter two cases, some scholars—such as Ibn Hazm and a group of scholars—held, in a narration from Ahmad, that the marriage is annulled as soon as she embraces Islam, or as soon as he embraces Islam while she is not from the People of the Book. They reasoned that, in all grounds for annulment, annulment takes effect from the moment its cause arises. Thus, whenever a cause that invalidates the marriage occurs, the marriage is invalidated immediately. Mutual imprecation invalidates the marriage as soon as it takes place, and if fosterage is established, it invalidates the marriage as soon as it is established.

There is a third view, the opposite of the latter view: the marriage is not annulled if the woman so chooses. That is, if the woman embraces Islam after consummation and her waiting period comes to an end, we do not say that the marriage has been annulled. Before the waiting period ends, she cannot marry, since she is observing another man's waiting period, and so we prevent her from marrying. But after the waiting period ends, we say to her: if you wish, marry; and if you wish, wait until your husband embraces Islam, for perhaps he will embrace Islam and you may return to him. This was the view preferred by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim—may Allah have mercy on them both—and al-Shawkani regarded it as sound in Nayl al-Awtar.

Indeed, Shaykh al-Islam did not distinguish between what occurs before consummation and what occurs afterward, because the basic presumption is that the marriage remains in force so long as it was contracted validly and the basis for its validity remains. It has not been reliably reported that the Prophet ﷺ separated a man from his wife when he embraced Islam before her, or when she embraced Islam before him. He also said: We have evidence establishing this. Abu al-As ibn al-Rabi, the husband of Zaynab, the daughter of the Messenger ﷺ, embraced Islam later than she did: she embraced Islam at the beginning of the Prophetic mission, whereas he did not embrace Islam until after al-Hudaybiyyah, when Allah Most High revealed: “So do not return them to