- Allah, the Exalted, says: “O you who believe, when you marry believing women and then divorce them before you have touched them, there is no waiting period that you must count for them; so provide for them and release them in a gracious manner” (al-Ahzab 33:49).
From this verse we understand that when separation occurs in the husband’s lifetime by divorce or the like, and the husband has neither consummated the marriage nor been alone with his wife in lawful seclusion, she owes no waiting period; the moment he pronounces the divorce she is free to remarry.
Hence, the waiting period becomes obligatory if intercourse has taken place, and likewise if valid seclusion has occurred, as was ruled by the Rightly Guided Caliphs (may Allah be pleased with them).
The verse also implies that if separation results from the husband’s death, the contracted wife must observe a waiting period even if consummation has not taken place. This is inferred here and from the general wording of: “Those among you who die and leave behind wives shall wait…” (al-Baqarah 2:234).
It further shows that the waiting period is among the husband’s rights—allowing him to revoke the divorce and safeguarding his lineage—and it is a right for the wife as well. Women in waiting fall into two main categories:
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A pregnant woman. She is entitled to maintenance in every situation, as Allah says: “If they are pregnant, then provide for them until they deliver” (at-Talaq 65:6).
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A woman who is not pregnant, and she is of two kinds:
• One irrevocably separated—through death, annulment, khulʿ, a third pronouncement of divorce, or compensation. None of these women are entitled to maintenance, clothing, or housing, except as an act of kindness and good conduct.
• One separated by a revocable divorce. For as long as she remains in her waiting period she is entitled to maintenance, clothing, housing, and their accessories at the husband’s expense. In all other respects she is treated as a wife still under his bond, except that he is not obliged to divide his nights with her, for Allah has called him her “husband” when He said: “Their husbands have a better right to take them back during that period” (al-Baqarah 2:228). He may therefore restore the marriage in full, whether she consents or not, as long as she is still within her waiting period.