as a menstrual period counting towards a woman’s waiting period. Such scholars include Ibn al-Mājishūn, who holds that the minimum duration of menstruation is five days, and Muhammad ibn Maslama, who holds that it is three days. According to Ibn al-Mājishūn’s position, when she sees a drop of menstrual blood, she must refrain from marrying until the bleeding has lasted five days; according to Muhammad ibn Maslama’s position, she must wait three days. This is because the bleeding might stop before reaching the minimum duration and return only after an interval long enough to constitute a separating period of purity. The returning blood would then mark the beginning of the third menstrual period, while the earlier blood would have been abnormal bleeding caused by an ailment. According to both scholars, she must make up the prayers she omitted during that earlier bleeding.
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The husband retains the right to take her back until the waiting period ends because a divorce that brings the total to fewer than three, when no ransom is involved, does not sever the marital bond before the waiting period ends. Do you not see that all the rights arising from marriage remain in force between them—maintenance, housing, and mutual inheritance—with the exception of sexual intercourse? The suspension of intercourse is the effect that pronouncing divorce has on the marriage. When he takes her back, this breach is repaired, and she returns to the marital bond as it was before.
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Taking her back is effected by the intention to do so together with either a verbal declaration or an act that takes its place—an act permissible only after taking her back, such as intercourse, kissing, pleasurable physical contact, or the like. This is stated in Ibn al-Mawwāz’s book and clarifies what is stated in al-Mudawwana, contrary to al-Shāfiʿī’s view that taking her back can be effected only through a verbal declaration.
As for entering her presence, looking at her, and eating with her, these depend on Mālik’s differing positions concerning whether he may do such things before taking her back. According to the position that prohibits them, doing so constitutes taking her back if he intends it as such. It does not constitute taking her back according to the position that permits these acts and also permits him to wash her body if she dies before he takes her back.