—provided there is no doubt about it. If, however, the girl stays in muwāḍaʿa beyond her normal number of days by a plainly excessive period that harms the purchaser, the judge may annul the sale between them according to his own ijtihād. Some scholars say that one should wait forty-five days; others hold that the buyer has no option to rescind until three months have passed; still others maintain that he has no option at all—even if suspicions arise—until nine months have elapsed.

Persistent bleeding unconnected to menstruation (istihāḍa) is a defect that entitles the buyer to return the slave girl if it was not disclosed beforehand.

One opinion counts the ordinary three-day warranty as part of the muwāḍaʿa guarantee, while another says it is separate. The operative practice among them is to begin those three days only after she has become pure from her menses, and my own preference is that no fresh three-day warranty should follow once she has emerged safely from muwāḍaʿa.

As for slave girls of the lower, menial category—those purchased for service rather than for pleasure—no muwāḍaʿa is required for them; the buyer simply purchases on his own responsibility.