Umm Habiba and Zainab daughter of Jahsh reported God’s Messenger as saying, “It is not lawful for a woman who believes in God and the last day to observe mourning for one who has died more than three nights, except for the four months and ten days in the case of a husband.”
Narrated Umm Salama told that a woman came to the Prophet and said:
"Messenger of God, my daughter’s husband has died and her eye is troubling her, so may we apply collyrium to it?” He said “No” twice or thrice, saying only “No” all the time. Then he said, “It is only four months and ten days, whereas in the pre-Islamic period none of you threw away the piece of dung till a year had passed.”*
* The reference is to a pre-Islamic custom by which a widow threw a piece of dung when her idda period came to an end. Cf. Lane, Lexicon and Taj al-'arus; Mirqat, 3:513 f.
Umm 'Atiya reported God’? Messenger as saying, “A woman must not observe mourning for one who has died more than three nights, except for the four months and ten days in the case of a husband, and she must not wear a dyed garment except one of the type made of dyed yarn,1 or apply collyrium, or touch perfume except for a little costus or azfar2 when she has been purified after her courses.”
1. ‘Asb. This word is applied to a type of Yemen garment which was made of cloth which
was dyed before being woven.
2. A certain odoriferous substance resembling finger-nails, used in incense.
(Bukhari and Muslim.) Abu Dawud added, “or apply henna.”
Al-Miswar b. Makhrama said that some nights after her husband’s death Subai’a al-Aslamiya gave birth to a child. Then she went to the Prophet and asked permission to marry. He gave her permission and she married.
