[Q 724] Quran 65:4: Menstruation, Iddah & Child Marriage

Question

In Qur’an 65:4, does “those who have not menstruated” refer to underage girls, and whose menstruation is delayed or absent because of illness, breastfeeding, or another medical cause?

Since the verse itself is open to interpretation due to tafsir, how did early and later mufassirūn determine its meaning? Why has the underage interpretation become dominant, while the medical interpretation is mentioned less often? This is because the verse is mentioning divorced women not girls. Moreover, given that the tafsīr attributed to Ibn ʿAbbās is a later and disputed compilation, how authoritative should it be considered? Does the verse merely regulate an existing divorce situation, or does it permit or encourage child marriage? Why would so many tafsir authors mention underage girls. Unfortunately many haters of Islam will use the underage tafsir reference and say it encourages underage marriage.

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
الجواب بعون الملك الوهاب اللهم هداية الحق والصواب

Answer

In the blessed verse stated in the question:

«وَاللَّائِي یَىٕسْنَ مِنَ الْمَحِیْضِ مِنْ نِّسَآىٕكُمْ اِنِ ارْتَبْتُمْ فَعِدَّتُهُنَّ ثَلٰثَةُ اَشْهُرٍ وَاللَّائِي لَمْ یَحِضْنَ»

Allah Almighty has stated the rulings regarding iddah (waiting period), which means: “Among your women, those who have despaired of menstruation, if you have any doubt, their iddah is three months, and those who have not yet menstruated.”

In this blessed verse, the part of the blessed verse «وَاللَّائِي لَمْ يَحِضْنَ» refers to those women who have not menstruated. If the lexical meaning of the word «لَمْ يَحِضْنَ» is considered, it also means “those women who have not menstruated,” because when the particle «لَمْ» precedes a present tense verb, its meaning becomes past tense.

Generally, women begin menstruating after the age of ten or twelve years. However, it often happens that a woman has reached the age of menstruation but still does not menstruate, whether due to illness or any other reason. Since iddah was previously only determined by menstruation, the ruling for the iddah of such women was not clear. Therefore, the ruling for such women has been stated in this verse. This is a completion of rulings, and there is no objection in this.

Furthermore, to prove from this blessed verse that Islam encourages child marriage is absolutely wrong and foolish, because the primary subject of this blessed verse is the explanation of iddah after divorce. Stating the ruling of marriage is not the subject of this blessed verse at all; therefore, this objection is also incorrect.

May Allah Almighty grant us the ability to correctly understand the rulings and issues of the religion, Ameen.

Answered by: Jahanzaib Madani (AskMufti Scholar)
Verified by: Mufti Sajid Attari
Translated answer
Date: 24th September 2026