upon her, because Allah the Almighty said: {If you marry the believing women and then divorce them before you have touched them, there is no waiting period for you to count against them}. He also said: {And divorced women shall wait for themselves for three menstrual cycles}. And He said: {And those who have despaired of menstruation among your women, if you are in doubt, their period is three months, and those who have not yet menstruated} (13). It is not permissible to specify these texts based on subjective opinion. Furthermore, she is a stranger [to him] who is lawful for other husbands, and the one who divorced her may marry her sister and four others besides her, so no waiting period for his death is incumbent upon her, just as if she had remarried. This differs from the woman who dies while in her waiting period, for she is not lawful for anyone else in this state, and her waiting period has not expired. We do not concede that she inherits from him, for if she were to inherit from him, it would lead to a man having eight wives who inherit from him. As for if she marries one of these [men], there is no waiting period upon her, without any disagreement known to us, and she does not inherit from him either. If the irrevocably divorced woman does not inherit—such as a slave woman, or a free woman whom a slave divorces, or a dhimmi woman whom a Muslim divorces, or a woman who has obtained khul', or one who has done something that annuls her marriage—then no waiting period is incumbent upon her, whether her husband dies during her waiting period or after it, according to the analogy of our scholars' position. They based their ruling of shifting her to the waiting period of death on her status as an heir, and this woman is not an heir, so she resembles a woman divorced during [the husband's] health. As for a woman divorced during [the husband's] health when she is irrevocably divorced, if her husband dies, she continues [her] waiting period of divorce and does not observe the waiting period for death. This is the opinion of Malik, al-Shafi'i, Abu 'Ubayd, Abu Thawr, and Ibn al-Mundhir. Al-Thawri and Abu Hanifa said: She must observe the longer of the two periods, as if he had divorced her during his death-sickness. Our evidence is the saying of the Almighty: {And divorced women shall wait for themselves for three menstrual cycles}. Also, she is a stranger to him regarding their marriage, inheritance, her lawfulness to him, the validity of his divorce, his zihar, and the fact that her sister and four others besides her are lawful for him, so she does not observe a waiting period for his death, just as if her waiting period had expired. The Qadi mentioned regarding the woman divorced during [the husband's] sickness that if she is pregnant, she observes the longer of the two periods. This is baseless; for the delivery of the child ends every waiting period, and it is not permissible for it to be obligatory upon her to observe a waiting period other than [the one ending with the] pregnancy, based on what we will mention in the issue that follows this one, if Allah the Almighty wills.