QUESTION: A woman begins the three month iddat after a non-finalized divorce....six weeks later the man dies....according to the notes in the Reliance, a non-finalized divorced woman must to the iddat for the death of the husband. The question: How are the months figured? Does the divorce iddat simply transform into the death iddat, thereby being extended from 3 months to 4 months and 10 days? Does the divorce iddat get completed and then the death iddat begin, meaning a total of 7 months and 10 days?
ANSWER:
Assalamu alaikum,
Alhamdulillah, we have Mawlana Ilyas Patel, a young scholar who is a dear friend and fellow student of Sheikh Nuh Keller's, online answering questions too:
Answer:
There are three aspects to this issue of, if a woman was in her idda (waiting period) of divorce and her husband passed away:
1) The first state is if she is pregnant then her idda will terminate after the delivery of the child, to the extent that even if the husband passes away just moments and she delivers the child.
Umar (Allah be pleased with him) said that, ”if a woman deliver her child and her husband is in his death-bed, her idda of death will terminate and it would be permissible on her to re marry.” (Imam Malik has reported this in Muwatta)
2) The second state is when the divorcee is not pregnant, but she is given a talaq raj’iy ( revocable) and the husband passes away, then the idda of divorce will terminate straight away and the idda of death will commence.
3)If a woman is given a talaq ba’in and the husband passes away before she completes her idda, then she has to see if the idda of divorce is longer or the idda or death. The idda which has the longest period will be her duty to complete. In other words, it is like she will be completing both the idda of divorce and death.
(al-Hidaya, Bab al Idda pg 423 )
[Source: SunniPath]