(1) This is derived from Allah’s statement: “His gestation and weaning are thirty months” (Surah al-Ahqaf 46:15), together with His statement: “Mothers shall nurse their children for two complete years, for whoever wishes to complete the nursing period” (Surah al-Baqarah 2:233). Thus, after deducting the period of weaning from thirty months, six months remain for the period of pregnancy. Medical opinion accords with this: medicine maintains that the shortest gestation after which a child can survive is six months. Ibn al-Qayyim said: “As for the minimum duration of pregnancy, the Shariah and nature have jointly established that it is six months.” See Tafsir al-Qurtubi, 9:288; Ibn al-Qayyim, Al-Tibyan fi Aqsam al-Quran, p. 339; Muhammad Ali al-Bar, Human Creation Between Medicine and the Quran, pp. 451–452. (2) Some Malikis and Ibn Hazm denied that pregnancy can last longer than nine months. Ibn Hazm said: “It is not possible for a pregnancy to last more than nine months or less than six months. Whoever claims that pregnancy and weaning may together last more than thirty months has spoken falsehood and impossibility, and has openly rejected the words of Allah, exalted is He.” After relating a number of reports and stories suggesting that pregnancy may last more than nine months, he said: “All these are fabricated reports, traced back to people who are neither trustworthy nor known. It is not permissible to make rulings in Allah’s religion on such a basis. Among those from whom a view like ours has been narrated is Umar ibn al-Khattab. He said: If a man divorces his wife, and she menstruates once or twice and then ceases menstruating, she should wait nine months until her pregnancy becomes evident. If her pregnancy does not become evident within nine months, then after the nine months she should observe a waiting period of three months, the waiting period of a woman who has ceased menstruating. Thus, Umar did not consider pregnancy to last more than nine months. This was also the view of Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Abd al-Hakam, Abu Sulayman, and our associates.” Ali—that is, Ibn Hazm—said: “Except that a child may die in its mother’s womb and remain there indefinitely, until she expels it in pieces years later. If this is established, then it is a valid pregnancy, and her waiting period does not end until all of it has been delivered.” The position defended by Ibn Hazm is also that held by physicians: in their view, pregnancy does not extend beyond one month after its due date; otherwise, the fetus would die in its mother’s womb. Any alleged duration beyond that is regarded as the result of an error in calculation. As for reports of children being born years after conception, or of a woman’s pregnancy lasting for years, this is what they call a “false pregnancy”: a condition affecting women who strongly desire to conceive but do not become pregnant, in which the abdomen swells with gas and menstruation stops. The woman believes herself to be pregnant despite all laboratory and medical examinations confirming that she is not pregnant. And Allah knows best. See Tafsir al-Qurtubi, 9:288–289; Ahkam al-Quran by Ibn al-Arabi, 3:1109; al-Durr al-Manthur, 4:609. Compare Ibn Hazm, al-Muhalla, 10:316–318; Muhammad Ali al-Bar, Human Creation Between Medicine and the Quran, pp. 452–454.