Chapter on Rajʿah (Reinstating a Divorced Wife)
Introduction
The word rajʿah—pronounced with either a fatḥah or a kasrah on the rāʾ, the first being more idiomatic—is the verbal noun of rajaʿa (to return).
Linguistically it means “one act of returning.”
In the Law it denotes: restoring a woman who has been divorced with a revocable divorce to the marital state she previously enjoyed, without the need for a new contract.
Its legitimacy is established by the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and scholarly consensus.
Allah, Exalted is He, says: “And their husbands have a better right to take them back during that time” (al-Baqarah 2:228).
The Prophet ﷺ said to ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, “Order him to take her back.”
Ibn al-Munḏir states: “The scholars unanimously agree that a free man who has divorced his wife fewer than three times retains the right of rajʿah during her waiting period.”
Rajʿah is possible only in the case of a revocable divorce—that is, a divorce issued within a valid marriage after consummation or lawful seclusion, comprising fewer than three pronouncements, given without any compensation, while the wife is still in her ʿiddah.
Should any of these conditions be absent, rajʿah is not permitted, for the separation has become either:
- A major separation (baynūnah kubrā), when the full count of three divorces has been exhausted; or
- A minor separation (baynūnah suġrā), when one or more of the remaining conditions listed above is missing.
Ibn al-Qayyim remarked: “The permission of rajʿah is among the greatest blessings. A husband may part from his wife, yet if his heart later inclines toward her he still has a way to restore her. Once he divorces her a third time, however, no avenue remains open to him until she has entered into a genuine marriage with another husband. Allah is the One whose help is sought.”