to make sure that the womb is free of pregnancy, nor is it a purely devotional act without rationale; for there is not a single ruling in the Sharīʿah that lacks meaning and wisdom—clear to those whom Allah allows to perceive it, and hidden from those whom He does not.”

Al-Wazīr and others have stated, “The scholars are unanimously agreed that the waiting period of a widow who is not pregnant is four months and ten days.”

As for a slave woman whose husband dies, her ʿiddah is half of that period—two months and five nights—because the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) unanimously reduced the slave woman’s waiting period by half in cases of divorce, and the same applies to bereavement.

Al-Muwaffaq Ibn Qudāmah said, “This is the opinion held by the vast majority of scholars, among them Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, and the jurists of opinion (the Ḥanafīs).” In al-Mubdiʿ he added, “The Companions unanimously agreed that the slave woman’s waiting period is half that of the free woman; otherwise, the apparent wording of the verse would suggest a general ruling.”

Having said that, the waiting period for a widow has its own specific regulations. One of them is that the widow must spend her ʿiddah in the residence where her husband died while she was living there; she may not move elsewhere except for a legitimate excuse. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Stay in your house,” and in another wording, “Observe your waiting period in the house where the news of your husband’s death reached you.”