Abu Nasr al-Zaynabī informed us; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Dhahabī informed us; Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad narrated to us; Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm al-Dawraqī narrated to us; Hushaym narrated to us; Yūnus related from al-Ḥasan, and Hishām from Muḥammad, from Abū Hurayrah:
A man asked the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—“May a person pray in a single garment?” He replied, “Do all of you have two garments?” (1)
With the same chain, Yaʿqūb al-Dawraqī narrated to us; Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUlayyah from Yūnus ibn ʿUbayd, from Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, from Yūnus ibn Jubayr:
I said to Ibn ʿUmar, “A man divorced his wife while she was menstruating.” He said, “Do you know ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar? He divorced his wife while she was menstruating. ʿUmar went to the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—who commanded him to take her back, then to begin her waiting-period anew.”
I asked him, “If a man divorces his wife while she is menstruating, is that pronouncement counted?” He replied, “Stop! And what if he proves incapable and behaves foolishly?” (2)
(1) Also transmitted by Malik, al-Muwattaʾ 1/140, Book of Congregational Prayer, chapter: “The concession to pray in a single garment”; through his route by al-Bukhari 1/397, Book of Prayer, chapter: “Praying in a single garment wrapped around oneself”; Muslim, no. 515, Book of Prayer, chapter: “Praying in a single garment”; Abu Dawud, no. 625; and al-Nasaʾi 2/69-70, Book of the Qibla, chapter: “Praying in a single garment,” all on the authority of Ibn Shihab from Saʿid b. al-Musayyab from Abu Hurayra. Ahmad 2/239 and al-Humaydi, no. 937, recorded it through Sufyan from Ibn Shihab with the same chain.
Al-Bukhari 4/401, Muslim (515/276) and Ahmad 2/230 also reported it through Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani from Muhammad b. Sirin from Abu Hurayra. ʿAbd al-Razzaq, no. 1364—and from him Ahmad 2/265-266—transmitted it through Maʿmar and Ibn Jurayj from al-Zuhri, from Abu Salama b. ʿAbd al-Rahman from Abu Hurayra. Al-Tayalisi 1/83 narrated it via Saʿid b. ʿAbd al-Rahman from Muhammad b. Sirin from Abu Hurayra, and Ibn al-Jarud in al-Muntaqa, no. 170, through ʿAbd Allah b. Hashim from Sufyan from al-Zuhri from Saʿid from Abu Hurayra.
(2) Reported in Sahih Muslim, no. 1471/9; also by al-Nasaʾi 6/141-142, Book of Divorce, chapter: “Divorce outside the waiting-period and what is counted against the divorcer”; and by Malik 2/576, al-Bukhari 9/306-307, Abu Dawud 2179-2185, and al-Tirmidhi 1175. For additional chains see Jamʿ al-Usul 7/600, 605 (Damascus ed.).
The phrase ʿajaza wa-istahmaqa means “he proved unable and acted foolishly.” Ibn al-Athir explains that istahmaqa denotes becoming foolish and behaving like fools, just as istanawqa al-jamal refers to a camel that comes to resemble a she-camel. In the narration the passive form istuhmiqa occurs, meaning “he did something that rendered him foolish.” Thus, divorcing one’s wife while she is menstruating is described as weakness and folly—but does such folly excuse the act so that the divorce is not counted?