The second view is that menopause is determined by one’s condition, not by age, and that it varies from woman to woman. Some women continue to menstruate regularly until the age of sixty or seventy; such a woman is not menopausal. This is the correct view, because in the Arabic language, despair is the opposite of hope. Thus, whenever a woman reaches a state in which she no longer expects menstruation to occur—whether because of advanced age, physical frailty, or any other reason—she is menopausal. We do not restrict this to a particular age, because Allah, Exalted is He, did not restrict it to an age. Thus, if a woman is fifty years old and menstruates once every two months, then according to the madhhab, once three months have elapsed—even if she has menstruated only once—a marriage contract may be concluded with her. According to the sounder, preponderant view, however, no marriage contract may be concluded with her until she has completed three menstrual periods.
His words, “A free woman observes a waiting period of three months, and a slave woman of two months,” mean that a slave woman observes a waiting period of two months. They say: Allah has prescribed three months, or three qurūʾ, for a free woman, and He has prescribed three months for one who does not menstruate. This means that each menstrual period corresponds to one month, which is generally the case. Since a slave woman has two menstrual periods, her waiting period in the event of menopause or young age is two months, because the substitute takes the ruling of that which it replaces.
His words, “And a partially free slave woman according to the proportion [of her freedom],” are somewhat inconsistent with the ruling concerning a partially free slave woman who observes a waiting period based on menstruation: she is treated like a free woman and observes a waiting period of three qurūʾ. For if you say that the waiting period of a slave woman is two months because the months are based on menstrual periods, then say that the waiting period of a partially free slave woman is three months, because the months are based on menstrual periods—and we have ruled that a partially free slave woman observes a waiting period of three menstrual periods. For this reason, some scholars have said that the waiting period of a partially free slave woman is three months, explaining that the months are a substitute for the qurūʾ.