and ʿĀʾishah narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Al-ʿusailah means sexual intercourse.”

– A man divorced … and then asked: Al-Bukhārī reports that the one who posed the question was Rifāʿah’s wife, while Fatḥ al-Bārī states that her name was Tamīmah bint Wahb al-Quraẓiyyah. There is no contradiction; it is perfectly possible that both the divorcing husband and the divorced wife each came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and asked him.

Lessons derived from the ḥadith:
1 – Pronouncing a triple divorce—whether in a single utterance or in repeated phrases, with no revocation or intervening marriage—constitutes an innovated, prohibited form of divorce. Its detailed ruling will be discussed, Allah willing, in the Book of Divorce.

2 – A woman divorced three times is not lawful for her former husband until she marries another man, the second husband has intercourse with her, then divorces her and she completes her waiting period. Allah the Exalted says, “If he divorces her, she is not lawful for him after that until she marries another husband” (al-Baqarah 2:230).

3 – The second marriage must be a genuine union, not one contracted merely to make her lawful for the first husband. If the second man truly desires her, then later divorces her and she completes her waiting period, she becomes lawful to the first husband. Allah the Exalted says, “If he divorces her, she is not lawful for him after that until she marries another husband. Then, if he (the latter) divorces her, there is no blame on the two of them if they return to one another, provided they think they can uphold the limits set by Allah” (al-Baqarah 2:230).

4 – Should the second husband marry her solely to legalise her for the first, the contract is invalid—indeed void—and both the marriage and any intercourse are forbidden. She does not thereby become lawful for the first husband, for the Prophet ﷺ said: “May Allah curse the muḥallil (the man who performs such a marriage) and the one for whom it is done.”

5 – For her to become lawful once more to the first husband, consummation with the second husband is indispensable. The Prophet ﷺ said: “No—she is not lawful for you until the other husband has tasted of her sweetness what the first one tasted,” a euphemism for intercourse.

6 – The scholars unanimously agree that the decisive act is actual penetration: the insertion of the glans—or its equivalent in the case of a man who has been emasculated—into the divorced woman’s vagina while the organ is erect, even if no ejaculation occurs. A mere contract, seclusion, or touching without penetration is insufficient, and neither a void nor a defective contract suffices; the marriage must be sound and valid.