in three separate statements, with no return or new marriage taking place in between. Do all three divorces then become binding so that his wife is not lawful for him again until she marries another man and completes the waiting period with him? Or is it counted as only one divorce, allowing him to take her back so long as she is still in her waiting period, and, once that period ends, to marry her anew even if she has not married anyone else?

The scholars disagreed over this at great length, and a number of leading imams and scholars—among them Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah and some of his followers—were persecuted for holding the view that the husband may take her back.

Here we shall present a concise summary that, God willing, will suffice.

The majority of scholars—including the four Imams—and the majority of the Companions and Successors maintained that a triple divorce uttered in a single phrase, such as “You are divorced three times,” or in separate phrases with no return or intervening marriage, counts as three.

Their proof is the ḥadith of Rukānah ibn ʿAbd Allah, who “divorced his wife al-batta (irrevocably).” When he told the Prophet ﷺ what he had done, the Prophet asked him, “By Allah, did you intend only one divorce?”

This ḥadith was transmitted by al-Shāfiʿī, Abū Dāwūd, and al-Tirmidhī, and was declared sound by Ibn Ḥibbān and al-Ḥākim.

The point of evidence lies in the Prophet’s ﷺ making the man swear that he had meant only one divorce: had he intended more, the number he intended would have taken effect.

They also cite what al-Bukhārī narrates from ʿĀʾishah: “A man divorced his wife three times. She later married another husband, who then divorced her. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was asked whether she could return to her first husband. He said, ‘No, not until the second one tastes her sweetness as the first tasted it.’” Had the three divorces not taken effect, she would not have been barred from returning to her first husband until after consummation with the second.

They further appeal to the practice of the Companions—among them ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him)—who enforced the triple divorce uttered in a single expression as three separate divorces, exactly as the husband had pronounced them, and their authority is proof enough.