The waiting period is reckoned from the very day he issues the second divorce.

For an umm walad (a concubine who has borne her master a child), the ʿidda after her master’s death is one menstrual cycle if she menstruates; otherwise it is three months. Only a fresh cycle that begins after the master’s death is valid. If he dies while she is already menstruating, that cycle does not count according to Mālik. Ismāʿīl, however, maintains that it does count, exactly as the current cycle counts for a free woman.

Should she suffer chronic bleeding or be in doubt about her condition, her waiting period is nine months. If her husband dies, her ʿidda is that of a slave-woman: two months and five nights.

If she is married and her master dies, she owes no waiting period on account of the master. If both the master and the husband die and it is not known which of them died first, she must observe the longer of the two periods, namely four months and ten days. Within that span she does not need to add a menstrual cycle unless more than two months and five nights separate their deaths and it is still unknown who died first; in that case a menstrual cycle must be added to the four months and ten days. If the months elapse before she has a period, she must wait until she sees her menses.

No one may propose marriage to an umm walad before she has menstruated, and no mourning (iḥdād) is required of her.