its number, what allows him to divorce her three times?! Is there any justification?! There is none, for there is no difference between a pregnant woman and a non-pregnant woman: when a man pronounces three divorces, he closes the door to taking her back and places himself under restriction. Thus, without doubt, the correct view is that divorce innovated in respect of its number applies to these four categories of women.

It states in al-Rawḍ (1): “If he says to one of them, ‘You are divorced once in accordance with the Sunnah, and once innovatively,’ both divorces take effect immediately—unless, in the case of a woman who has not despaired of menstruation, he intends when she becomes subject to that classification. But if he says this to a woman for whom there is Sunnah-compliant and innovated divorce, one takes effect immediately, and the other when her state is the opposite.”

If he says, “You are divorced once in accordance with the Sunnah and once innovatively,” she is divorced twice immediately. The reason is that, for such a woman, there is neither Sunnah-compliant nor innovated divorce; it is as though he had said, “You are divorced; you are divorced.”

This applies even if he intended emphasis, because emphasis is not valid in this case. Emphasis can only occur in two identical clauses, whereas here the two clauses differ: the first is, “divorced in accordance with the Sunnah,” and the second, “divorced innovatively.” Thus, it cannot be taken as emphasis, contrary to those who say: unless he intended emphasis.

If he says to a woman for whom there is Sunnah-compliant and innovated divorce, “You are divorced in accordance with the Sunnah,” while she is menstruating, she is not divorced, because divorce at that time is innovated. She must therefore wait until she becomes pure, at which point the divorce takes effect.

If he says, “You are divorced in accordance with the Sunnah and innovatively,” one divorce takes effect immediately in every case, because she is either in a Sunnah-compliant state or an innovated state; and the second takes effect