When does the waiting period of a woman whose husband died while she was pregnant end, if she fell ill two weeks later and miscarried after three and a half months? What should this woman do?

The questioner : May the Shaykh be honored, when does the waiting period of a woman whose husband died while she was pregnant end, if she fell ill two weeks later and miscarried after three and a half months? What should this woman do? Does her waiting period end, or does she have to wait until the end of four months and ten days? Please give us a ruling, and may Allah reward you.

The Shaykh : This is a good and important question. What is the pregnancy that ends the waiting period? The scholars say that the pregnancy that ends the waiting period is one in which the creation of a human being has become apparent, meaning one that has been formed. This is what ends the waiting period. Accordingly, if a woman gives birth after forty days of pregnancy, her waiting period does not end because the fetus has not been formed. If she gives birth after eighty days, we look at it: if it has been formed, the waiting period ends; if it has not been formed, the waiting period does not end. This is because when it reaches eighty days, it moves to the third stage, which is the lump of flesh. Allah the Exalted said: The evidence for this is the hadith of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: The truthful in what he reported, the one verified in what he was told. He said: Forty days as a drop of fluid, forty days as a clot of blood, meaning a piece of blood, and forty days as a lump of flesh. This makes one hundred and twenty days, which is four months. Then the angel is sent to it to breathe the spirit into it. Accordingly, we say regarding the question that was asked: it has been three and a half months. How much is three and a half months? That is one hundred and five days. Something like this is usually formed. So if the woman gives birth to it, her waiting period ends with it. On this occasion, I would like to say that if a fetus is delivered before the completion of four months, it is a piece of flesh that is buried in any place, and it is not washed, shrouded, prayed over, named, or sacrificed for. If it is delivered after the completion of four months, it is a human being that is washed, shrouded, prayed over, buried in the Muslim cemeteries, named, and sacrificed for, because it has become a human being.