SECTION ON DIVORCE · 44 – CAN A WOMAN BE MADE TO LEAVE HER HUSBAND’S HOUSE WHILE OBSERVING HER WAITING PERIOD (ʿIDDA)?
2300 – According to the report of al-Furayʿa bint Mālik ibn Sinān, the sister of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, she came to the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) and asked whether she could return to her family among the clan of Hudra. In those days, her husband had gone out to search for their runaway slaves. When he reached a place called Kadum (on the outskirts of Medina), he caught up with them, but the slaves killed him. She said: I asked the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) for permission to return to my family, because my husband had not left me in a property he owned, nor had he left me any maintenance. The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Yes.” She said: I left, and when I had reached the cell or the mosque, he called for me or commanded that I be called, so I was summoned to him. The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said to me, “How did you say it?” I repeated to him the story I had mentioned about my husband’s situation. The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Stay in your husband’s house until the obligatory waiting period (ʿidda) is completed.” She said: I observed my waiting period of four months and ten days in my husband’s house. She said: ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, during his caliphate, sent for me and asked me about this matter, and I informed him of what had happened to me. He followed what the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) had instructed me to do and ruled accordingly. [233]
EXPLANATION
Abū Ḥanīfa said: A place of residence is designated for a woman whose husband has died; if she wishes, she may go out during the day, but at night she may not go elsewhere and must sleep in her own house. The views of Imām Mālik, al-Thawrī, al-Shāfiʿī, and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal are also like this. According to the views of ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ, Jābir, al-Ḥasan, ʿAlī (may Allah be pleased with him), Ibn ʿAbbās, and ʿĀʾisha, a woman may observe her waiting period (ʿidda) wherever she wishes.