it upon it, for it is not permissible to rely for istibra' upon that which offers no evidence for it, over that which does. Their basing this statement on their claim that quru' (menstrual cycles) are periods of purity is building a disagreement upon another disagreement, and that is not a valid proof. Furthermore, it was not possible for them to build this upon that without contradicting it; for they treated the period of purity in which he divorced her as a qur', yet they did not treat the period of purity in which the master of an umm al-walad died as a qur', thus contradicting both the hadith and the meaning. If they say: 'Some of the menstrual cycle coupled with the period of purity indicates the absence of pregnancy,' we say: 'Then the reliance in that case would be upon a portion of the menstrual cycle, and that is not a qur' according to anyone.' When this is established, if he dies while she is pure, then when she becomes pure from the subsequent menstrual cycle, she is permitted, and if she was menstruating, she does not count the remainder of that menstrual cycle, but whenever she becomes pure from the second menstrual cycle, she is permitted; because the istibra' of this woman is by one menstrual cycle, so a full menstrual cycle is necessary.

1358 - Issue; He said: (And if she is an ayisa [a woman who has reached menopause], then it is by three months).

This is the famous view reported from Ahmad as well. It is the opinion of al-Hasan, Ibn Sirin, al-Nakha'i, Abu Qilaba, and one of the two opinions of al-Shafi'i. 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz asked the people of Medina and the midwives, and they said: 'A pregnant woman cannot be verified as not pregnant in less than three months.' Their answer pleased him. From Ahmad, there is another narration that she is verified by one month. This is a second opinion of al-Shafi'i, because a month stands in the place of a qur' in the case of a free woman and a divorced slave woman, so it is the same in the case of istibra'. The Qadi mentioned a third narration that she is verified by two months, like the waiting period of a divorced slave woman. I have not seen any basis for that; if her istibra' were two months, then the istibra' of a woman who has menstrual cycles would be two cycles, and we do not know of anyone who holds this view.