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What is the meaning of the statement that the condition in the fourth verse of Surat At-Talaq "has no mafhum (connotation) according to those who affirm mafhum; because it is a clarification of the incident in which it was revealed, without intending restriction"?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Al-Alusi says in his Tafsir regarding the verse: "And for those of your women who have passed the age of menstruation, if you have doubts, their waiting period is three months" (Quran 65:4), that the condition here has no mafhum (implication). The verse clarifies that the waiting period for women who have passed the age of menstruation is three months, whether there is doubt about their waiting period or not. This is because the phrase "if you have doubts" was revealed to address the specific circumstance in which the Quran was revealed, which was the Companions' inquiry about the waiting period for women who had passed the age of menstruation. One of the reasons for not considering mafhum al-mukhalafah (the inverse implication) in Usul al-Fiqh is when the description is mentioned because it aligns with a factual situation, such as in His saying, the Almighty: "And whoever invokes another deity with Allah, for which he has no proof" (Quran 23:117). The phrase "for which he has no proof" is a description that corresponds to reality.

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

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