Question: What do the Almighty’s words mean: “And those of your women who have despaired of menstruation—if you are in doubt, their waiting-period is three months; and also for those who have not yet menstruated. As for pregnant women, their term is until they deliver” (at-Talāq 4)?

Answer: In this verse Allah identifies three kinds of women who must observe a waiting-period (ʿiddah):

1. Women who have stopped menstruating. A menopausal woman—defined here as one who has reached fifty years of age—counts her ʿiddah by months: “their waiting-period is three months,” each month standing in place of a menstrual cycle. A woman who still menstruates, by contrast, waits through three cycles, as Allah says in Sūrat al-Baqarah: “Divorced women shall wait concerning themselves for three periods” (al-Baqarah 228). Thus, a woman who no longer menstruates waits three months in lieu of three cycles.

2. Women who have never menstruated. These are the young girls who have not yet reached the age of menses. If they are divorced in that state, they follow the same ruling as menopausal women and wait three months, because they too have no menstrual cycles.

3. The pregnant divorcée. Her ʿiddah ends as soon as she gives birth—even if that occurs only a moment after the divorce, no longer than the time between two milk-letdowns of a she-camel. The instant she delivers, her waiting-period is over, for Allah says: “And pregnant women—their term is until they deliver” (at-Talāq 4). This is the soundest of the two scholarly views.