The majority of scholars allow a husband to revoke the divorce even if he does not genuinely intend reconciliation by that revocation. Shaykh al-Islam, however, together with a number of later verifiers, held that revocation should only be granted to one who truly seeks reform and wishes to keep his wife with kindness. Whoever claims that the Quran has given a person ownership of something it has already forbidden has fallen into self-contradiction.

8. Ḥadith 943, moreover, proves that a revocation is valid even without summoning witnesses, for its wording is unrestricted, and it is impermissible to restrict an unqualified text by means of a report whose chain stops at a Companion.

9. Still, the expression “outside the Sunnah” may be understood as alluding to the Prophet’s practice ﷺ in light of Allah’s words: “And when they have reached the end of their term, then retain them in a fair manner or part with them in a fair manner, and call to witness two just men from among you, and uphold the testimony for Allah” (at-Talaq 65:2). Since the verse commands the summoning of witnesses for divorce, revocation—its inseparable counterpart—logically shares that ruling; moreover, summoning witnesses is the safer course in every contract and in every dissolution.