Chapter on Mourning (iḥdād)

Observing iḥdād is mandatory for every woman whose husband has died until her waiting period ends—whether that period concludes by the passage of the prescribed months or by her delivery of a child. This applies alike to freewomen and slave-women, to Muslims and to protected non-Muslims (dhimmīs), to the young and to the old. Some jurists have argued that no iḥdād is required of a dhimmī woman or of a minor, but the first view is the settled position of Mālik and it is the correct one; we have laid out the proofs for this in our book al-Tamhīd.

No mourning is required of a divorcée, whether her divorce is revocable, irrevocable (mubtūta), or bāʾin (a final, severing divorce).

Iḥdād consists in refraining from everything by which women ordinarily adorn themselves