| Details | Iddat simply means waiting period. Iddat is based on menstruation, to account for iddat the talaq judgment should not come into effect until the concerned woman has completed three menstrual cycles. Those who do not menstruate due to physical disorder or old age, should wait for three months-[Quran chapter 65 verse 4] only those women whose marriage is not consummated, have no waiting period-[Quran chapter33 verse 49]- If a woman is pregnant she must declare it, and the waiting period for her is until the delivery-[Quran chapter 65 verse 4] Iddat or waiting period for a widow is four months and ten days –[Quran chapter 2 verse 234] Iddat (a period of waiting, a prescribed period) is a concept distinctive and unique in Quranic jurisprudence, like of which is not to be found in any other known system of jurisprudence. The question of iddat for women arises on other occasions as well, as on the death of husband, on periods of abstinence from sexual intercourse and on periods of abandonment of prayers and fasting by women, but it arises also when there is a pronouncement of talaq. The purpose of iddat after divorce is four fold, first, to allow the parties to reconcile and to give the divorce a go by in the cases of Talaq Ahsan or Talaq Hasan, secondly, to ascertain whether the woman is carrying any offspring of her husband in the womb or not, so that the legitimacy f the child remains beyond dispute, thirdly, to prevent remarriage of the woman during the period of iddat in order not to forestall reconciliation and to avoid future controversies on legitimacy and fourthly, to make arrangements for the maintenance of the woman during the period of iddat. [Md. Hefzur Rahman vs. Shamsun Nahar Begum and another, 19 BLD (AD) 27] |
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