A husband may appoint an agent to pronounce divorce on his behalf, whether that agent is an outsider or the wife herself. He may therefore delegate the matter to her and place the decision in her hand. In every respect—explicit wording, allusive phrasing, and the number of pronouncements—the proxy stands in the husband’s place, unless the husband has set a specific limit.

Neither the husband nor his proxy effects a divorce except by actually uttering it. If he conceives it only in his heart, it is not effected until he pronounces it and moves his tongue, because the Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah has pardoned my community for what their souls whisper to them so long as they do not act upon it or speak of it.” Accordingly, divorce takes place only by verbal declaration, except in two situations:

1. If he writes an explicit formula of divorce in readable form and intends it, the divorce is effected. Should he not intend it, the jurists hold two views, the majority maintaining that it still takes effect.

2. The mute person’s recognisable hand-sign indicating divorce; if the gesture is intelligible, the divorce is valid without spoken words.

As for the number of divorces that may be issued, it is determined by the husband’s status—whether he is free or enslaved—not by the wife’s, for Allah addressed men alone on this matter: “O Prophet, when you divorce women, divorce them at an appropriate point in their waiting period” (Q 65:1); and, “When you divorce women and they have reached the end of their waiting period…” (Q 2:231). The Prophet ﷺ likewise said, “Divorce is only for the one who has taken hold of the leg,” so a free man is entitled to