we would require her to observe three cycles.

It is thus clear that a divorced woman must observe three cycles without qualification, whereas this woman, whose marriage ended otherwise than through divorce, was not required to observe three cycles. One cannot therefore say that every woman observing a waiting period following separation from a living husband must observe three cycles. Rather, this case disproves that claim on the basis of the revealed texts and scholarly consensus.

Section

The Quran, the Sunnah, and reports from leading Companions—such as ‘Uthmān and others—indicate that the waiting period of a woman who secures release from marriage in return for compensation is one menstrual period. This resolves the difficulty concerning “the overlap of two waiting periods,” as when a woman marries during her waiting period and the man has intercourse with her.

What is reported from Companions such as ‘Umar and ‘Alī is that she completes the waiting period for the first husband, then observes a waiting period on account of intercourse with the second. She must therefore complete the first husband’s waiting period and observe another for the second. This is the position adopted by the majority of jurists, including Mālik, al-Shāfi‘ī, and Ahmad.

‘Umar and ‘Alī differed over whether she becomes lawful for the first man after completing both waiting periods. ‘Umar said, “He may never marry her,” and Mālik adopted this position. ‘Alī said, “He is one suitor among the other suitors,” and al-Shāfi‘ī adopted this position. Two opinions are reported from Ahmad.

Abū Hanīfah, however, holds that she need observe only one waiting period, for the second man, with the remainder of the first husband’s waiting period included within it. Some of his followers mentioned that this opinion is reported from Ibn Mas‘ūd, but we know of no chain of transmission for it.

We therefore say that the two waiting periods overlap, for the waiting period is a right owed to him: if the husband wished to waive it, he could not do so. Thus, one period is subsumed within the other, as with prescribed punishments and expiations, for