for half a year without menstruating. A man other than her first husband then came forward to marry her. They went before a judge, who asked her about her menstruation.

She said, “I have not menstruated for several years.”

The judge said, “In my judgment, you may not marry.” Another judge then married her without asking her about her menstruation. When a third judge heard about her case, he summoned the husband and wife, gave the man one hundred lashes, and said, “You have committed fornication.” He also decreed a divorce, although the husband himself had not pronounced one. Does a divorce take effect thereby?

He replied:

If her menstruation has ceased because of illness or breastfeeding, she must wait until that condition ends and she menstruates, according to the consensus of the scholars.

If her menstruation has ceased for a reason unknown to her, then, according to the sounder of the scholars’ two opinions, she comes under the ruling stated by ‘Umar: “She should wait a year, then she may marry.” This is Ahmad’s established position within his school and one opinion of al-Shāfi‘ī.

If she belongs to “the first category,” her marriage is invalid. The judge who separated them was correct to do so and was also correct to discipline whoever did this. If she belongs to “the second category” and a judge married her, no other judge was entitled to separate them, and no divorce took effect, for a judge may act in such a matter according to the sounder of the two views.

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

A divorced woman who was breastfeeding found that her menstruation was slow to return, so she took medicine to induce it and then had three menstrual periods. Does her waiting period thereby end or not?