Mentioning the waiting period in divorce.

The Shaykh : He divorced the woman for her waiting period. Her waiting period is that she is pregnant, or that she is in a state of purity in which he did not have intercourse with her. Yes, in a state of purity, but she is in a state of purity in which he did not have intercourse with her, or she is a post-menopausal woman, or a young girl. The important thing is that he divorces her in a way that her waiting period begins from the moment of the divorce. For this reason, we say that the letter *lam* in His saying: the *lam* indicates timing, like His saying: . Now, if he divorced her while she was pregnant, is the divorce what? Valid, my brothers. Valid. The divorce is valid because he divorced her for the waiting period; from the moment he divorced her, the waiting period began, and it ends when she gives birth. If she is a post-menopausal woman, an old woman who no longer has menstruation, and he divorced her, the divorce is valid because from now she begins her waiting period. If he divorced her while she is a young girl who does not menstruate, it is valid, and the waiting period begins from now. If he divorced her in a state of purity in which he did not have intercourse with her, the divorce is valid because she begins her waiting period from now. If he divorced her during menstruation, here he did not divorce her for the waiting period. Why? Because the menstrual period in which the divorce occurred is not counted in the waiting period. So he divorced her at a time when the divorced woman does not begin her waiting period. Is that clear, my brothers? Now. If he divorced her in a state of purity in which he had intercourse with her, why does the waiting period not begin? Why? Because there is a high probability that she became pregnant from this intercourse. And if she became pregnant, what is her waiting period? Giving birth. And if she did not become pregnant, her waiting period is three menstrual cycles. So we are in doubt, and he did not divorce her for a known waiting period. And the summary is that divorce is not permissible during menstruation, nor during the state of purity in which he had intercourse with her, unless she is pregnant, or post-menopausal from menstruation like an old woman, or a young girl who does not menstruate. Now.
If a man divorces his wife before consummation while she is menstruating. He contracted marriage with a woman but did not consummate it and then divorced her. Her family told him that she was menstruating. Does the divorce take effect or not? Does it take effect? It does not take effect? It takes effect because there is no waiting period. A woman divorced before consummation and seclusion has no waiting period. And Allah, Mighty and Majestic, said: And this woman has no waiting period. So it is permissible to divorce a woman with whom one has not consummated the marriage, even if she is menstruating. Is that clear, everyone? Therefore, it is obligatory for one who intends to divorce to be deliberate and to look at whether the woman is in a state where her divorce is valid or not. If she is in a state where the divorce can take effect, and he has a strong desire to be rid of her, meaning he does not want her, then he divorces her; otherwise, he does not divorce her. And it is obligatory for those who write divorce documents to learn the rulings on divorce so that when they write documents for people, they are on the basis of proof. You mentioned that if a man divorces during menstruation or in a state of purity in which he had intercourse with her, then the divorce does not take effect. This is the opinion of some scholars. But it contradicts the four schools of jurisprudence. Imagine, my brother, the four schools of jurisprudence: the school of Malik, the school of al-Shafi'i, the school of Abu Hanifah, and the school of Imam Ahmad hold that divorce during menstruation takes effect, it takes effect in all cases. This is because many of the Companions divorced their wives, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not ask for details; he did not say, "Is she menstruating, or in a state of purity in which he had intercourse with her, or something like that?" No, he ruled that the divorce takes effect. And because when it was reported to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that Abdullah ibn Umar had divorced his wife while she was menstruating, he said to Umar: . They said, "And there is no taking back except with a divorce." So taking back is a branch of the divorce taking effect. Accordingly, the divorce of a menstruating woman takes effect. This is the school of the four Imams. Do not be negligent and say that divorce during menstruation does not take effect, because it is possible that someone will ask you, "Who said this?" Since all four schools of jurisprudence say it takes effect. People were divorcing during the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and he did not ask for details. And Umar ordered the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to order his son Abdullah to take back his wife. And there is no taking back except after the divorce has taken effect. So the opinion of the majority is a strong opinion, without doubt. And the negligence in our current time, when the fatwa became that divorce of a menstruating woman does not take effect according to some scholars—and I am among them—has led people to be negligent, to be careless, and to play around. A man comes who divorced his wife twenty years ago, then divorced her ten years ago, and then divorced her this year. How many is that? What? Three. And the common people, O people of good, the common people have become jurists in the matter of divorce. Jurists! He comes to seek a fatwa, and by Allah, the first divorce was during menstruation, meaning he says, "What? What? It is not valid, cancel it." The second was in a state of purity in which he had intercourse with her. Meaning what? Cancel it. The third: in a state of intense anger, what? It does not take effect, cancel it. So his wife has no divorce at all. Even though I know with certainty that if she had married when her waiting period from the first divorce ended, her husband would not have said to the second wife, "This is my wife," why would he marry her? Never. But when things become tight for them, they resort to tricks. Therefore, from the perspective of education, if we had obligated the divorcing men that divorce during menstruation takes effect, that would have been better. And it would have been a deterrent for people from playing with divorce. Therefore, Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), from his policy—and the soundness of Umar's policy is not hidden from us all—when people played with divorce and started divorcing with three, a man would come to his wife and say, "You are divorced, you are divorced, you are divorced," or "You are divorced three times," and then he would take her back and she would return to him. This was in the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), the time of Abu Bakr, and two years of Umar's caliphate. And this divorce in its form is forbidden, forbidden. To say to the wife, "You are divorced, you are divorced, you are divorced," intending to effect the triple divorce, this is forbidden for you. Or "You are divorced three times," forbidden. When Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) saw that people were being negligent in this matter, he said, from his wise policy: What does "we make it binding on them" mean? It means the separation takes place, and even if the three were one at first, we make them three now. Why? So that people would be deterred from this forbidden act. And this is from wise policy, so he made the triple divorce binding. And the man, if he said to his wife in the time of Umar, "You are divorced, you are divorced, you are divorced," in the beginning of his caliphate, how much divorce takes effect? How much? One. In the end, three take effect. And it is not permissible for him to take her back. So that when one remembers that she will become forbidden to him, he stops. So he prevented people from what was permissible to them for the sake of education. This is a prescribed matter from Umar's (may Allah be pleased with him) policy, and he is one of the Rightly Guided Caliphs whom the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered to follow his Sunnah. Therefore, my brother, do not play with divorce. If you want to divorce, divorce with deliberation, composure, and study. Glory be to Allah! If breastfeeding a child requires consultation between the mother and father, whether to wean or not, as He, Mighty and Majestic, said: meaning the weaning of the child . This is breastfeeding a child; how is the divorce of a wife? The family disintegrates by a single fit of anger, he says, "You are divorced three times" or "You are divorced," and he does not know whether she is menstruating, in a state of purity, or pregnant. Glory be to Allah, the Great! A man comes home tired from work and says to his wife, "Come, bring the lunch." She says, "By Allah, O father of so-and-so, the lunch is not ready now because the meat is lean camel meat." And camel meat, yes, no, does not cook quickly. He says, "It is not ready yet?" "It is not ready yet." What do I do? He says, "You are divorced." Is that enough for you or not? You are divorced, is that enough for you or not? You are divorced. Why? Because he did not find the lunch, Zaher and... This is foolishness, everyone. We know this; we are not watching people, but from the inquiries that come to us, we know that foolish husbands get angry at the slightest thing and divorce. Well, Glory be to Allah! Is separating a wife easy? Answer, O man. By Allah, it is not easy, especially if she has children, the children are lost. And if she does not have children, separating from her is difficult, separating from her is difficult. And the fire of anger that has flared up will cool down and disappear, and then the person regrets it. And if it turns out that she was divorced and separated from him, will he easily find another woman? Answer, everyone. No, by Allah, he will not find one. It is very difficult. The mahr is high, and the one willing to accept the proposal is few. And when will a man find the mahr? And Satan, O our brothers, it is mentioned in some narrations that he rejoices with great joy when he separates a man from his wife. He sends his offspring, Satan sends his soldiers, he says, "Go." And when they return to him, he says, "What did you do?" One says, "I did one thing; I left this one not praying, this one not praying with the congregation." And the second, "I left this one stingy with zakah." And the third, they mention things. One of them came and said, "I did not leave the man until I separated him from his wife." So Satan embraces him, embraces him, embraces his son who separated the man from his wife, and hugs him and says, "You, you," meaning what? You, what? Meaning you are the good one, you are the good one.