especially when the calamity is great, the Prophet ﷺ granted a dispensation permitting iḥdād for only three days. In practice, if someone loses a close friend or relative and is so grief-stricken that he cannot face people, it is permissible for him to stay home for up to three days—provided he still attends the congregational prayers. The same allowance applies to women: if her son, father, brother, or any person to whom she was deeply attached passes away, there is no harm in her observing iḥdād for three days or less. Anything beyond that is impermissible, for “it is not lawful for a woman who believes in Allah and the Last Day to mourn for more than three days, except for her husband.”

A husband’s right is so great that the Prophet ﷺ said, “If I were to command anyone to prostrate to another, I would have ordered a wife to prostrate to her husband,” underscoring the magnitude of his right—though prostration is owed to none but the Lord of the worlds, the Creator, exalted is He.

Therefore, a widow who is not pregnant observes iḥdād for four months and ten days. If she is pregnant, her iḥdād lasts only until she delivers, whether that period is longer or shorter. When a man dies leaving a wife behind, she must observe four months and ten days of iḥdād, as Allah the Exalted says: “Those of you who die and leave wives behind, they shall wait by themselves for four months and ten days” (Q 2:234). This applies even if the marriage had not yet been consummated; if the contract was valid—whether she was in Madinah and he in Mecca—and he dies, she must mourn him. If she is pregnant, her waiting period ends with delivery—even if she gives birth before her husband is washed for burial. For instance, should her husband’s soul depart while she is in labor and the child is born only minutes later, her waiting period and her iḥdād both conclude at that moment.