Thus, a divorce pronounced while the wife is menstruating takes legal effect even though it is forbidden; nevertheless, the menstrual period during which the divorce occurred is not counted toward her ʿiddah.

If the divorced woman is a slave-girl, her waiting period is two complete menstrual cycles. This is based on the report, “The waiting period of a slave-girl is two menstrual cycles,” and it is the position of ʿUmar, his son ʿAbd Allāh, and ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib—without any known Companion dissenting. Their view qualifies the general wording of the Almighty’s statement, “And divorced women shall wait, keeping themselves, for three menstrual cycles” (Q 2:228). By strict analogy her ʿiddah would be one and a half cycles, but because a menstrual period cannot be divided, the ruling is fixed at two full cycles.

As for a divorcee who has ceased menstruating due to old age, or a young girl who has not yet begun to menstruate, each observes a waiting period of three months, in accordance with His words: “and those who have not yet menstruated” (Q 65:4)—that is, those among your women who have not menstruated; their ʿiddah is three months. Imām Muwaffaq al-Dīn Ibn Qudāmah and others state, “There is scholarly consensus that the ʿiddah of a free woman who no longer menstruates, as well as that of a girl who has not yet menstruated, is three months.” A woman who has reached puberty yet still experiences no menstruation follows the same rule as the menopausal woman—three months—because she falls under the general wording of “those who have not yet menstruated.”

If the menopausal or premenstrual divorcee is an umm walad (a slave-woman who has borne her master a child), her ʿiddah is two months, in keeping with the statement of ʿUmar — “The waiting period of an umm walad is two menstrual cycles; if she does not menstruate, then two months.”