The Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—was asked:

A woman’s husband had been suffering from a chronic illness for three months. He asked her for a drink, but she was slow to bring it, so he became displeased with her and said, “You are divorced three times.” She remained with him, caring for him, and twenty days later he died. Does the divorce take effect? If he swore an oath in a case of this kind, would he have broken it? May an heir prevent her from inheriting?

He replied:

The divorce takes effect if he was of sound mind and acting of his own free will. However, she inherits from him according to the majority of the leading scholars of Islam. This is the position of Mālik, Ahmad, Abū Hanīfah, and al-Shāfiʿī in his earlier opinion. It accords with the ruling of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān concerning the wife of ʿAbd al-Rahmān ibn ʿAwf: he divorced her during his final illness, but ʿUthmān ruled that she should inherit from him.

She must observe whichever waiting period ends later: the waiting period following divorce or that following her husband’s death. If, however, he had lost his reason, his divorce has no effect.

He—may Allah have mercy on him—was also asked:

A man divorced his wife once, before consummating the marriage, during the illness from which he died. Does this count as a divorce intended to deprive her of her inheritance? Should his purpose be counteracted, so that his wife inherits from him and receives her full dower? Or, in these circumstances, does she receive no inheritance and only half the dower?