I am pregnant and we are divorced. When does my iddah end?
Your iddah ends when you give birth: an event, not a date. The Qurʾān says so, and the scholars agree on it for every woman separated in her husband's lifetime.12
What the four schools say
All four schools agree that a pregnant woman's iddah ends with the delivery of the whole pregnancy.
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Ḥanafī الحنفية
For a pregnant woman, in every case, the iddah is the delivery of all of her pregnancy.5
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Mālikī المالكية
Her iddah, after a death or a divorce, is the delivery of all of the pregnancy, even if it comes a moment after the divorce, whether one child or more.4
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Shāfiʿī الشافعية
It ends with the delivery, once all of it has left her, even the second of twins.3
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Ḥanbalī الحنابلة
Her iddah does not end except by delivery; Ibn Qudāmah reports that the scholars of every age agree on this for the pregnant divorced woman.2
What can change this
Sources
- 1
Qurʾān, al-Ṭalāq 65:4
- 2
Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī), 8:117
- 3
al-Nawawī, Minhāj al-Ṭālibīn (Shāfiʿī), p. 254
- 4
al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr ʿalā Mukhtaṣar Khalīl, with Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī (Mālikī), 2:474
- 5
Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-Muḥtār ʿalā al-Durr al-Mukhtār (Ḥanafī), 3:511