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Is the wife considered to have received a single, revocable divorce (talaq raj'i) after childbirth, becoming forbidden to her husband, requiring her to observe the 'idda (waiting period), and obligating her to move to her family's home, given that her husband uttered the words of divorce in a state of anger, saying to her: "If you do not abort the fetus, then you are divorced after your childbirth"?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Aborting the fetus is forbidden, even before the ensoulment, and it is forbidden by consensus after five months. Conditioning divorce on aborting the fetus is not permissible. This divorce takes effect immediately after birth according to the majority of scholars, or at once according to the Malikis (the preponderant view), or it necessitates an expiation for breaking an oath if the intention was to threaten. Your waiting period (iddah) after purification from postpartum bleeding is three menstrual cycles, or three months if you do not menstruate. This is one revocable divorce, and your husband may take you back, provided it was not preceded by two divorces.

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

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