[A Man Married a Divorced Woman Who Did Not Menstruate, and She Gave Birth After Two Years]

Mufti:

Alsayyed Muhammad b. Abdallah Awad Al-Muayyady

تاريخ النشر: December 25, 2025

Fatwa number: 18679

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[A Man Married a Divorced Woman Who Did Not Menstruate, and She Gave Birth After Two Years]

Fatwa number: 18679

Question: A man married a woman, and she gave birth to a daughter two years after he married her. She had previously been married to another man, but she had not menstruated from the time her first husband divorced her until she gave birth, though she is among women who menstruate; then after giving birth her menses returned to normal. To whom is the child ascribed in the Sacred Law?

The answer—and with Allah is success: It appears they married her while she was still in her waiting period (ʿiddah), out of their ignorance. Accordingly, the answer is: If the latter husband and the wife both acknowledge that intercourse occurred, the child is ruled to belong to him—that is, to the latter husband. If the two spouses do not both acknowledge that intercourse occurred, then the child is attributed to the first husband if she gave birth before four years had passed since the first husband divorced her. All of this is according to the madhhab.
Source : Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.1