and the subtle ones include expressions such as: ukhrujī (leave), idhhabī (go), iʿtaddī (observe your waiting period), istabriʾī (clear yourself), lastī lī bi-imraʾah (you are no longer my wife), khallaytuki (I release you), alḥaqī bi-ahliki (return to your family), and the like.
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The difference between overt and subtle implicit formulas is that the overt expressions were originally coined to indicate final separation; therefore, pronouncing any one of them counts as three divorces, even if the husband intended only one. This is the well-known Ḥanbalī position.
As for the subtle formulas, they are coined for a single divorce unless the husband intends more, in which case whatever he intends takes effect. -
This two-fold categorization of divorce wording is the view most commonly transmitted from Imām Aḥmad, may Allah have mercy on him.
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Ibn al-Qayyim said: “Dividing expressions into explicit and implicit is linguistically accurate in origin, yet it varies with people, times, and places. No fixed ruling adheres to any specific word in and of itself; a term that is explicit among one group may be implicit among another, or explicit in one era or locale and implicit in another. Actual practice bears this out.”
Shaykh ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā, the judge of Shaqrāʾ, said: “In our present usage, the word takhlīyah (‘I release you’) is considered explicit.”
Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī said: “The sound view is that divorce is not confined to any particular wording; any expression that conveys the meaning of divorce suffices, just as in other transactions. Allah knows best.” -
Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm Āl al-Shaykh said: “There is no doubt that merely signing a divorce document is not one of the formulas of divorce, neither explicit nor implicit, for the husband did not write out a divorce for his wife. All he did was place his signature beneath wording composed by someone else. If he did not utter any of the words written on the paper, we see no grounds for a divorce to be effected simply by his signing it.”