What is the required waiting period for the wives if the husband dies before the unspecified divorced wife is identified?
Chapter on Divorce by Calculation
Al-Mughni
Book of Divorce
Primary text
If the husband dies before the identity of the divorced woman is specified, then all wives must observe the waiting period for death, according to Al-Sha'bi, Al-Nakha'i, and 'Ata al-Khorasani. Abu 'Ubayd stated this is the position of the people of Hejaz and Iraq. The reasoning is that each woman remains potentially under the marriage contract, and the original status is continuance, thus the death waiting period applies to all.
Supporting text
The soundest position is that each woman must observe the longer of the two waiting periods: the waiting period for death or the waiting period for divorce. The divorce waiting period starts from the time of divorce, and the death waiting period starts from the time of death, because each woman might be subject to the death waiting period, or she might be the divorced one, making the divorce waiting period incumbent. Certainty is not achieved except through the longer of the two periods. This applies only to an irrevocable (ba'in) divorce.