until she reaches the age at which women normally cease to menstruate; only then does she reckon her waiting period by months—unless her menses return beforehand. Mālik’s opinion is transmitted from ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and Ibn ʿAbbās, whereas the majority view goes back to Ibn Masʿūd and Zayd.

Mālik’s principal rationale is that the purpose of the ʿiddah is to establish, with predominant certainty, that the womb is empty. This is shown by the fact that a pregnant woman may sometimes bleed. Since the term prescribed for pregnancy suffices—and indeed gives conclusive knowledge—of an empty womb, he requires her to observe three further months, which is the ʿiddah of a post-menopausal woman. Should she menstruate before the year is complete, she is treated like one who habitually menstruates: that flow counts as one quruʾ, after which she waits for a second quruʾ or, failing that, another year, until three quruʾ have elapsed in all.

The majority, by contrast, adhere to the apparent sense of the Divine words:

“And those of your women who have despaired of menstruation—if you are in doubt—then their waiting period is three months.” (al-Ṭalāq 65:4)

A woman who is still of an age at which menses are expected has not yet despaired, yet this position entails hardship and constraint. Were it said that she should observe a three-month ʿiddah—understanding “despaired” to apply to a woman whose cessation of menses is not decisively established—that would be a sound ruling. In that reading, the phrase “if you are in doubt” would refer to the legal ruling, not to the bleeding itself, contrary to Mālik’s exegesis. Thus Mālik’s interpretation of the verse does not fully coincide with his legal conclusion, for he understood “one who has despaired” to mean a woman certainly outside the class of menstruating women, something determined only by age. Hence he took “if you are in doubt” to concern the ruling—i.e., “if you are uncertain about their ruling”—and then held that a woman who passes nine months without bleeding, while still of menstruating age, completes her ʿiddah by months.

Ismāʿīl and Ibn Bukayr, two of his disciples, maintained that the doubt refers to menstruation itself, and that in Arabic usage “one who has despaired” denotes a woman whose status is not yet settled with certainty. Their reading therefore harmonised the verse with their—and Mālik’s—legal stance, and rightly so: for if “despaired” implied absolute certainty, she would have to wait for menstrual blood and reckon her ʿiddah by it until she actually reaches the menopausal age. But if “despaired” is understood more broadly, then a woman whose menses cease irregularly while she is still of child-bearing age would observe her ʿiddah by months. This matches the Zāhirī position, for they hold that a menopausal woman, at either extreme, is not subject to any ʿiddah measured by quruʾ or by months.

The distinction between less than and more than nine months is based purely on juristic preference (istihsān).

As for a woman whose menses cease for a known cause—such as breastfeeding or illness—the well-known Mālikī opinion is that she waits for her menses to return, no matter how long that takes. Some have said that the sick woman is treated like one whose menses stop for no apparent reason.

The woman with chronic non-menstrual bleeding (mustahāḍah), according to Mālik, observes a one-year ʿiddah if she cannot distinguish between the two kinds of blood. If she can, there are two reports from him: one still sets her ʿiddah at a year, while the other has her rely on the distinction and reckon her waiting period by menstrual cycles. Abū Ḥanīfah says that if the difference between the two kinds of blood is clear her ʿiddah is measured by quruʾ, otherwise it is three months. Al-Shāfiʿī rules that once the blood separates, the deep red is counted as menstruation and the yellowish as days of purity, and her ʿiddah is determined on that basis.