- A woman whose menstruation has ceased and who does not know why must, if she is free, wait one full lunar year: nine months to allow for a possible pregnancy and three months for the waiting period itself; the waiting period for a slave woman is shorter by one month.
The waiting period for a girl who has reached puberty but never menstruated, for a woman experiencing prolonged non-menstrual bleeding (istihada) who has forgotten the length of her normal cycle, and for a woman whose very first bleeding is istihada is three months, and for a slave woman two months. If she knows the cause of the cessation—whether illness, breastfeeding, or something else—she remains in suspense until menstruation returns, after which she counts her waiting period by it, or until she reaches the age of menopause, in which case she observes the waiting period prescribed for menopausal women.
- The wife of a missing man must first observe the delay previously set out with regard to his estate1 and then the waiting period for death; a slave wife is treated like a free woman in that initial delay, but in the subsequent waiting period she observes half the time required of a free woman. Neither of these periods depends on a judge’s ruling.
If, after completing these periods, she marries another man and the first husband reappears before the second consummates the marriage, she reverts to the first. If he returns after consummation, she remains with the second, although the first still has the right to reclaim her on the basis of the original contract—even if the second has not yet divorced her—provided he does not cohabit with her until the waiting period occasioned by the second marriage is over. He may also choose to leave her with the second without the need for a new contract. In either case, he takes from the second an amount equal to the dower he had paid her, and the second then recovers that sum from her.