ʿIddah of a Pregnant Woman: Consensus on Completion After Delivery
Source: Fatāwā Amanpuri by Shaykh Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Amanpuri
Question:
If a man sends divorce to his pregnant wife, and the wife does not receive it until after she has delivered, what is the ruling of her ʿiddah?
Answer:
Divorce is the right of the husband, and for it to take effect, the wife’s knowledge is not a condition. If the husband writes and sends the divorce, it becomes effective from the time he wrote it, regardless of when the wife receives it.
Therefore, if a pregnant woman was divorced, her ʿiddah ends with delivery. If she was unaware of the divorce and later gave birth, then with childbirth her ʿiddah is over, and she is no longer in her husband’s marriage bond.
❀ Imām Ibn al-Mundhir رحمه الله (d. 319H) said:
أجمعوا على أنها لو كانت حاملا فى وقت طلاق الزوج وهى غير عالمة بطلاقها، حتى وضعت، أن عدتها منقضية بوضع الحمل.
"The scholars are unanimous that if a woman was pregnant at the time her husband divorced her, but she was unaware of the divorce until she delivered, then with delivery her ʿiddah is completed."
(Al-Awsaṭ: 9/534)
