Can I keep going to work during my iddah? What if my shift runs into the evening or is at night?
Yes, by day. All four schools let a widow go out by day for her living and her needs, and come home to sleep.12 Evening and night work is where they differ, so read the four schools below and ask your imam about your own shifts.
What the four schools say
The schools agree she may go out by day for her living and sleeps at home. They differ on the evening and the night.
-
Ḥanafī الحنفية
The widow goes out by day and night and spends most of the night at home, because she must now support herself and so needs to go out; Ibn ʿĀbidīn explains this as going out "by day and part of the night" to earn her living.15 If she already has enough to live on, the same page says she does not go out except for need.1
-
Mālikī المالكية
She may go out for her needs by day, and at the two ends of the day (just before dawn and after sunset until the late evening prayer) if that time is safe; if it is not safe, only by day.6
-
Shāfiʿī الشافعية
A widow whose needs no one else meets may go out by day to buy what she needs and to sell her work, and in the evening to a neighbor’s house, as long as she returns and sleeps in her own home.78
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Ḥanbalī الحنابلة
She may go out by day for her needs and her living. She may not spend the night away from home, nor go out at night except for necessity.2
What can change this
- Night shifts: a contemporary fatwā (from Shaykh Ibn Bāz) treats work as an essential need and allows going out at night as well if that is the only way to keep a job she needs.3 Another contemporary fatwā allows work by day only, with home at night.4 These are contemporary applications, not the classical texts.
- In every school she still sleeps at home, and mourning (no adornment, no perfume) goes with her to work.
Sources
- 1
Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-Muḥtār ʿalā al-Durr al-Mukhtār (Ḥanafī), 3:536
- 2
Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī), Maktabat al-Qāhirah edition, 8:163
- 3
IslamQA 127974, "How should a woman who is working observe ‘iddah?" (contemporary fatwā; source given on the page: Islam Q&A, quoting Majmoo‘ Fataawa Ibn Baaz 22/201)
- 4
IslamQA 108229, "Can Women in `Iiddah Go Out to Pray Tarawih and Go to Work?" (contemporary fatwā; source given on the page: Islam Q&A)
- 5
Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-Muḥtār ʿalā al-Durr al-Mukhtār (Ḥanafī), 3:536
3 more sources, 6 to 8
- 6
al-Dasūqī, Ḥāshiyah ʿalā al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr of al-Dardīr (Mālikī), 2:486–487
- 7
al-Khaṭīb al-Shirbīnī, Mughnī al-Muḥtāj (Shāfiʿī), 5:106
- 8
al-Khaṭīb al-Shirbīnī, Mughnī al-Muḥtāj (Shāfiʿī), 5:106