As for the action taken by ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb—may Allah be pleased with him—far be it from him, or from those who stood by his side, to institute anything at odds with what prevailed in the time of the Prophet ﷺ. What he actually observed was that people were rushing into, and multiplying, the pronouncement of a triple divorce, which in itself is a forbidden innovation. He therefore resolved to bind them to the consequences of their own words as a form of discipline and deterrent for the sin they had committed and the self-imposed hardship they had needlessly brought upon themselves, despite the Law’s inherent ease and breadth. This measure of ʿUmar, Allah be pleased with him, was one juristic judgment among the judgments of the imams: it may vary with changing times and does not become a fixed, immutable ruling. What remains permanently binding is the original legislation on this question.

Shaykh al-Islām, may Allah have mercy on him, said: “If a man divorces his wife three times in a single purity period—whether in one phrase or in several, such as saying: ‘You are divorced, then divorced, then divorced,’ or by repeating, ‘You are divorced,’ ‘You are divorced,’ ‘You are divorced’—the scholars, early and late, hold three opinions on the matter, whether the woman has been consummated with or not:

1. It is a permissible and binding divorce. This is the view of al-Shāfiʿī and, in the earlier report from Aḥmad, a view chosen by al-Khiraqī.

2. It is prohibited yet still binding. This is the position of Mālik, Abū Ḥanīfah, and another report from Aḥmad, adopted by most of his students. The opinion is also transmitted from many of the early and later scholars among the Companions and the Successors.

3. It is prohibited, and only one divorce takes effect. This view is reported from a group of early and later scholars among the Companions, is the position of many Successors and those after them, and is also held by some disciples of Abū Ḥanīfah, Mālik, and Aḥmad.

As for swearing an oath by invoking divorce, he—may Allah have mercy on him—said: “There is an obvious difference between an actual divorce and swearing by divorce, and between a vow itself and swearing by a vow. If a man seeks something from Allah and says, ‘If Allah cures my sick relative, settles my debt, or delivers me from this ordeal, then upon me is to give one thousand dirhams in charity, or to fast a month, or to manumit a slave,’ this is a conditional vow …"