three divorces, even if his wife is a bondwoman, whereas a slave owns only two pronouncements, even if he is married to a free woman. Thus, when both spouses are free the husband, by consensus, may issue three divorces, and when both are slaves he may issue only two, also by consensus. The sole point of dispute arises when one spouse is free and the other is a slave. The sound view is that the ruling follows the husband’s status—free or enslaved—as explained earlier, because divorce is the husband’s prerogative, so the criterion is taken from him.

It is permissible to add an exception in a divorce formula, meaning that the speaker excludes part of what the wording would otherwise cover by saying “except” or a similar term.

That exception may concern the number of pronouncements, as when he says, “You are divorced three times except one,” or it may concern the number of women, as when he says, “All my wives are divorced except Fāṭimah,” for example.

In both cases the exception is valid only if the portion excluded is one-half or less of what it is excluded from. If the portion excluded is more than half—such as saying, “You are divorced three times except for two”—the exception is invalid.

A further condition applies when the exception relates to the number of divorces: it must be spoken aloud. If he says, “You are divorced three times,” while merely intending in his heart “except one,” all three divorces take effect, because an explicit number cannot be overridden by an unspoken intention, which is weaker. By contrast, an unspoken intention suffices when the exception concerns the women themselves. Hence, if he says, “All my wives are divorced,” intending “except so-and-so,” the exception stands and the woman he intended is not divorced, for the phrase “all my wives” is linguistically flexible, covering either all or some, and so he is granted what he intended.

It is also lawful to suspend a divorce on conditions, that is, to make it dependent on the occurrence or non-occurrence of something by using “if” (in) or one of its sisters, as when he says, “If you enter…"