he actually pronounces it. For some people, when they feel intense distress, say, “I will divorce her and be relieved,” and then pronounce the divorce. Such a divorce does not take effect, for he is undoubtedly under constraint; indeed, this is among the most severe forms of constraint.
A person afflicted with such obsessive misgivings—whether concerning his acts of worship or his marriage—suffers immensely. If he doubts whether he has broken his ablution, he says, “I will break it so that I may be certain.” If he doubts whether he formed the intention to begin the prayer or not, he says, “Then I shall interrupt it and make the intention anew.” Then, after forming the intention and beginning the prayer, he doubts again and interrupts it, saying, “I shall make the intention anew,” and so on. Such a person must be given the fatwa: “If your inner promptings tell you that you did not intend the prayer, then you have intended it; and if they tell you that you have broken your ablution, then you have not broken it,” until this condition leaves him. For his actions in this state are deemed legally ineffective. Divorce is included in this: the divorce pronounced by one afflicted with obsessive misgivings is not taken into account. This is because either it has not actually occurred, as when he merely thinks that he has divorced; or it occurs under constraint and compulsion, as though something were forcing him to speak, and so he speaks.
“And his agent is like him,” …
His statement, “and his agent is like him,” means that the husband’s agent in pronouncing divorce is like the husband himself and takes his place. But how can he say, “like him,” when “him” is an independent nominative pronoun?
This expression is permissible according to grammarians. It involves using the nominative pronoun in place of the genitive pronoun, since the genitive pronoun in such a construction is simply the suffix “-h,” as one says, “I passed by him,” and, “I arrived at him.” But because it is not possible to use the attached pronoun with the comparative particle “ka-” in this case, the nominative pronoun is used instead, although an attached pronoun may sometimes be joined to “ka-,” as Ibn Malik said:
“What they have narrated, such as ‘perhaps him, a youth,’
is rare; likewise ‘as him’ and similar expressions have occurred.”