967 – It is narrated from Fāṭimah bint Qays, may Allah be pleased with her, that she said: “I said, ‘Messenger of Allah, my husband has divorced me three times, and I fear that someone may force his way in upon me.’ He therefore instructed her, and she moved elsewhere.” Recorded by Muslim (1).

Vocabulary of the ḥadith
– an yuqtaḥama ʿalayya: a passive form. They say: qaḥama fī ʾd-dār yaqaḥamu qaḥūman – he hurled himself into a house suddenly, without deliberation or awareness.
– fa-taḥawwalat: she relocated from the house in which she feared to remain.

Points derived from the two ḥadiths

1. Ḥadith no. 966 shows that a widow must spend her waiting period and mourning in the house where her husband died while she was living there, and that it is unlawful for her to leave it until “the prescribed term has elapsed,” meaning until her ʿidda and mourning end: by delivering her child if pregnant, or, if not pregnant, by completing four months and ten days.
2. The obligation for the widow to stay in the house where her husband died while she resided there is the view of a group of early and later scholars. It is also the position of the three imams—Abū Ḥanīfah, al-Shāfiʿī, and Aḥmad—and their followers. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr said: “A number of jurists from the regions of the Ḥijaz, Syria, Egypt, and Iraq have said the same, and ʿUmar judged accordingly in the presence of the Companions from among the Emigrants and the Helpers. The proof is the ḥadith of Farīʿah, and no one has contested it or any of its transmitters.”