Thus, the views on this issue are three:

First: she becomes lawful to the man who had intercourse with her after the waiting period of the first husband has ended.

Second: she becomes lawful to him after both waiting periods have ended.

Third: she never becomes lawful to him.

The position of the madhhab lies between these views: she becomes lawful to him through a new marriage contract after both waiting periods have ended. Yet, according to the underlying legal principles, the stronger view is the first: that she becomes lawful to him through a new marriage contract after the waiting period of the first husband has ended—especially if he repents to Allah and turns back to Him—for the waiting period is on his account. However, if the imam or Sharīʿah judge considers it proper to bar him from her altogether, in accordance with what has been narrated from Umar (1), then he may do so.

If she marries during her waiting period, it is not interrupted until the second husband consummates the marriage with her. If he then separates from her, she continues and completes her waiting period from the first husband, then begins a new waiting period for the second. If she bears a child attributable to either of them, her waiting period from that man ends with the birth, after which she observes the waiting period for the other. Whoever has intercourse by mistake with his irrevocably divorced wife while she is observing her waiting period must begin a new waiting period because of that intercourse, and the remainder of the first waiting period is included within it, ................

His statement, “If she marries during her waiting period, it is not interrupted”: If a woman observing a waiting period marries during that period, her waiting period is not interrupted. Someone may object: once she marries him, she has become a woman with two husbands, so the waiting period for the first husband must be discontinued.

The answer is that this marriage contract is invalid and has absolutely no legal effect. She is therefore not a woman with two husbands. Thus, if a woman is observing a waiting period and a man comes and marries her—whether unknowingly or deliberately—her waiting period is not interrupted, because this contract is invalid and therefore has no effect.

But when is it interrupted? The author says:

“Until he consummates the marriage with her.” What is meant is until the second husband has intercourse with her, because it is intercourse that interrupts the waiting period. Once he has intercourse with her, we separate them. Thus, if we suppose that a woman observing a waiting period was married by another man during that period, and she had already menstruated twice but he had not consummated the marriage with her, then, between the contract and consummation, she menstruated for the third time, her waiting period from the first husband would end, because he had not had intercourse with her, and