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Or, divorce is governed by the husband’s status, and the waiting period by the wife’s. In prescribed punishments, slaves are subject to half what free persons are, because Allah, Mighty and Majestic, says:

“If they commit indecency, their punishment shall be half that of free women.” [al-Nisā’: 25]

Divorce and waiting periods fall under prescribed limits, not personal rights. Slaves must therefore be subject to half what free persons are in these matters. Thus, a male slave has two pronouncements of divorce, since the second pronouncement cannot be divided, whether his wife is free or enslaved. A slave woman’s waiting period is two menstrual periods, since the second period of purity cannot be divided, whether her husband is free or enslaved. If, however, she does not menstruate because she is too young or too old, her waiting period is three months, exactly like that of a free woman, since pregnancy cannot be ascertained in less than three months.

When her husband dies, her waiting period is two months and five nights, unless the marriage has been consummated and she is of an age to menstruate and capable of becoming pregnant. In that case, she must wait until three months have elapsed, lest she be pregnant, for pregnancy cannot be ascertained in less than three months. Mālik once said of a widowed woman who had ceased menstruating that she must observe a waiting period of two months and five days. On another occasion, he said that she must observe three months, because pregnancy cannot be ascertained in less than three months. These statements should not be understood as conflicting opinions on his part: in the first report, he was speaking of a woman in whom pregnancy could be ruled out, and in the second, of one in whom it could not. Do you not see that he explained his ruling by saying that pregnancy cannot be ascertained in less than three months?

Accordingly, if a slave woman is of an age at which she does not menstruate, and pregnancy can be ruled out, her waiting period following divorce should be one and a half months—half the waiting period of a free woman. I know of no explicit statement on this from any of our scholars. Rather, Mālik’s companions differed, as their predecessors had differed, concerning the period required to ascertain that a slave woman is not pregnant when she is sold, if she does not menstruate because she is too young or too old. Some said one month; others, one and a half months; others, two months; and others, three months. The last is the soundest opinion, because pregnancy cannot be ascertained in less than three months. It is Mālik’s position. Success comes from Allah, Glorified and Exalted.