These rulings take effect swiftly and operate with full force: once they are issued by someone who possesses the right to enact them, he has no way to retract them after pronouncing them.

Accordingly, whoever contracts a marriage for his female ward, divorces his wife, or emancipates his slave, sees the act executed the very moment he utters it—whether he is serious, joking, or merely playing—because none of these contracts admits either the option of session (khiyār al-majlis) or the option stipulated by condition (khiyār al-sharṭ).

The same applies to the husband’s revocation (rajʿah): it becomes effective as soon as he voices it, since the wife’s consent or acceptance is not required.

The two hadiths in this chapter serve as specific qualifiers for the general principle stated in the hadith, “Actions are only by intentions.”

Thus the pair of reports cautions a person against joking or trifling with such rulings—as some people do in their public and private gatherings—and urges him to be vigilant, lest he entangle himself in serious consequences.

The wisdom—Allah knows best—behind the immediate enforceability of marriage, revocation, and manumission is that the Lawgiver is eager for these acts to be realized; therefore they take effect the instant they are pronounced.

As for divorce, the wisdom—Allah knows best—is that it is exceedingly serious: repeated divorce turns the wife into a complete stranger, makes intimacy with her unlawful, and most men who pronounce it do so in moments of emotional agitation rather than calm deliberation. To prevent anyone from later denying his intention and thus playing games with the matter, the Law has deemed divorce binding and operative against him even if he did not actually intend or mean it.

The scholars unanimously agree that when a man divorces his wife, the divorce counts against him—whether he was jesting or in earnest—and that claiming afterward, “I was only playing or joking,” is of no avail.