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Does a woman observe the waiting period (iddah) after apostatizing from Islam and requesting divorce, or is the marriage contract annulled due to apostasy without the need for divorce?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The statement "I do not want Islam" is an act of apostasy that expels its utterer from Islam. If one of the spouses apostatizes, the marriage contract (nikah) is suspended until the 'iddah (waiting period) ends. If the apostate returns to Islam during the 'iddah, a divorce occurs. Otherwise, the marriage contract is annulled. The repentance of an apostate is by uttering the two testimonies of faith (Shahadatayn). If their apostasy was due to denying an obligatory tenet, then repentance is by uttering the two testimonies of faith along with affirming what they denied.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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