and she becomes lawful for other men in marriage. Thus, the second divorce does not take effect upon her. The first divorce is binding upon him, but what follows it is not.

The evidence that, if a man divorces a woman before consummation, she becomes irrevocably separated from him and owes him no waiting period is the saying of Allah, Most High:

“O you who believe! When you marry believing women and then divorce them before you have touched them, there is no waiting period for you to reckon concerning them.” [al-Ahzab: 49]

If he says, “You are divorced by one divorce accompanied by another divorce,” the apparent meaning of the author’s words is that only one divorce takes effect upon her, since he said, “If he has not consummated the marriage with her, she is irrevocably separated by the first.” However, the established legal school differs from this: two divorces take effect, because “accompanied by” indicates simultaneity. It is like saying to a woman with whom the marriage has been consummated, “You are divorced by two divorces,” in which case two divorces take effect. The position of the legal school is sounder than that adopted by the author.

However, the basis for the author’s view is that the accompanying divorce is distinct from the one accompanied; thus there are two divorces. She is divorced by one, while the second has no object upon which to take effect. But it may be said: the two divorces took effect simultaneously, at one and the same moment, upon a woman eligible for divorce; thus she is divorced by two divorces.