he retains one divorce. Hence he said, “he retains no more than the number remaining,” whether or not another husband has consummated the marriage with her. For Allah, Exalted is He, says:

“Divorce is twice.” Then He says: “And if he divorces her [for the third time], she is not lawful for him thereafter until she marries another husband.” [Quran 2:230]

Thus, His words, “Divorce is twice,” followed by His words, “And if he divorces her,” include both the case where she married someone else after him and the case where she did not. That is, if he divorces her after the two divorces, she is not lawful to him unless she has married another husband. The apparent meaning of the noble verse applies whether she married another husband between those two divorces and the third one or did not marry; for the second husband’s marriage had no effect and therefore did not invalidate the preceding divorces. Thus, she is lawful to him whether she married another husband or not, and this is why he retains only the number of divorces remaining.

This issue therefore has three scenarios:

The first: he divorces her and then takes her back; he retains only the number remaining.

The second: he divorces her, her waiting period ends, and he then remarries her with a new marriage contract; he retains only the number remaining.

The third: he divorces her, her waiting period ends, then she marries another man, the second husband separates from her, and then the first husband remarries her; he retains only the number remaining.

The implication of his statement, “fewer times than the number of divorces still at his disposal,” is that if he divorces her the full number at his disposal—three in the case of a free man and two in the case of a slave—she is not lawful to him unless she has married another husband. If he then marries her after that husband, the count of divorces begins anew, and he has three divorces available to him, as though he had married her only now. This is because, in this case, the second husband’s marriage had an effect: it made her lawful again for the first husband. Were it not for this marriage, she would not have become lawful to the first husband. Therefore, since it had such an effect and the first husband had exhausted the number of divorces at his disposal, she returns to him with a new count of divorces. It is not to be said that, when she returns to him, he has only one divorce available.