He replied:

If this woman’s divorce was revocable and her husband died while she was still in her waiting period, she inherits from him by the consensus of the Muslims. If the divorce was irrevocable, as in the case of a threefold divorce, she also inherits from him according to the great majority of the leading scholars of Islam. This was the ruling given by the Commander of the Faithful, Uthmān ibn Affān—may Allah be pleased with him—when Abd al-Rahmān ibn Awf divorced his wife, Bint al-Asbagh al-Kalbiyyah, three times during his final illness. Uthmān consulted the Companions, who advised that she should inherit from him. No disagreement on this matter is known from any of the Companions.

Disagreement emerged only during the caliphate of Ibn al-Zubayr, who said: “Had I been in his place, I would not have awarded her an inheritance.” Yet consensus had already been established before Ibn al-Zubayr became qualified to exercise independent juristic reasoning. This ruling was adopted by the leading scholars among the Successors and those who came after them. It is the position of the scholars of Iraq, such as al-Thawrī, Abū Hanīfah and his followers; the scholars of Medina, such as Mālik and his followers; and the hadith jurists, such as Ahmad ibn Hanbal and others like him.

It is also al-Shāfi‘ī’s earlier opinion. In his later opinion, however, he agreed with Ibn al-Zubayr, on the grounds that the divorce takes effect: if she were to die, he would not inherit from her, by agreement, and likewise she does not inherit from him. Moreover, the divorce has made her unlawful to him: neither intercourse nor other sexual enjoyment with her is lawful for him. She is therefore no longer his wife and does not inherit.

The majority said:

The heirs’ rights attach to the property of a person in his final illness from the onset of that illness, and his freedom to dispose of it becomes restricted in order to protect their rights. During his final illness, he may therefore make only such gratuitous transfers as he could make through dispositions taking effect after his death. He has no right during his final illness to deprive some heirs of their inheritance and reserve it for others, just as he has no right to do so through dispositions taking effect after death. Nor may he give more than one-third of his property gratuitously to a non-heir during his final illness, just as he has no power to do so through dispositions taking effect after death.