The short answer
The schools differ. The Mālikī and Ḥanbalī schools, and an old view of al-Shāfiʿī, say she waits nine months and then three, a year in all, following a ruling of ʿUmar.12 The Ḥanafī school and the new Shāfiʿī view say she waits for her periods to return, or until she reaches the age of menopause and then counts three months.34
The schools differ on a woman whose periods stopped for no known reason: a year in all (Mālikī, Ḥanbalī), or waiting for her periods or for menopause (Ḥanafī, and the new Shāfiʿī view).
What the four schools say
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Ḥanafī الحنفية
A young woman whose clean time has gone on after she had menstruated counts by menstruations until she reaches the age of menopause. The nine-month view in Sharḥ al-Wahbāniyyah is called unusual and is not given as a fatwā, though if a Mālikī judge rules by it, the ruling is carried out.3
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Mālikī المالكية
If her period is delayed for no reason, or because of illness, she waits nine months, then three, and is free after the year.1 If a period comes during the year, she waits for the next one or a full year without bleeding, whichever comes first, and the same again for the third.7
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Shāfiʿī الشافعية
In the new view, a woman whose bleeding stopped with no cause waits until she menstruates, or until she reaches the age of menopause and then counts months. In the old view she waits nine months (in one view, four years), then counts months.4
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Ḥanbalī الحنابلة
She observes a year: nine months to know the womb is empty, then the three months of women past menstruation; this is the ruling of ʿUmar.2 If her period returns during the year, even at its end, she moves to counting periods.6
What can change this
- If she knows why her periods stopped, such as nursing, the Ḥanafī, Shāfiʿī and Ḥanbalī texts say she waits for them to return; the Mālikī text treats a stop from illness like the year above.145
- If a period comes during the waiting, she moves to counting periods.67
- If she is pregnant, the iddah ends at delivery.8
Sources
- 1
al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr ʿalā Mukhtaṣar Khalīl, with Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī (Mālikī), 2:470
- 2
Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī), 8:109
- 3
Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-Muḥtār ʿalā al-Durr al-Mukhtār (Ḥanafī), 3:508
- 4
al-Nawawī, Minhāj al-Ṭālibīn (Shāfiʿī), p. 253
- 5
Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī), 8:111
3 more sources, 6 to 8
- 6
Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī), 8:110
- 7
al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr ʿalā Mukhtaṣar Khalīl, with Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī (Mālikī), 2:471
- 8
Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī), 8:117