Whoever says, “I swore by divorce, but I was lying,” is nonetheless held to its legal consequence.

The statement, “Your affair is in your own hands,” empowers the wife to pronounce up to three divorces, unless he has intercourse with her again or withdraws that delegation. By contrast, the words, “Choose yourself,” give her authority for a single divorce only within that same sitting. If she declines, or he consummates, or he revokes, her option is nullified.

Section
(On matters that alter the number of divorces)

A free man, or one who is partially emancipated, may issue three divorces, whereas a slave may issue only two—even if his wife is free.

The formula “ʿAlayya al-ṭalāq” (“Upon me be divorce”) or “yalzamunī” (“it is incumbent upon me”) and the like counts as one divorce unless he intends a higher number.

The expressions “all the divorces,” “most of them,” or “as many as there are pebbles” and the like bring about three divorces; in the other legal schools they count as a single divorce unless he intended more. Saying, “your hand” or “a quarter of you” is divorced, or pronouncing, “You are half a divorce,” and the like, effects a full divorce, whereas directing it to her “soul,” “hair,” “fingernail,” and the like does not.

If he says, “You are divorced, you are divorced,” two divorces take effect with a wife who has been consummated, unless he meant only to make himself understood or to give immediate emphasis. In the sequence, “You are divorced, then divorced, then divorced,” his claim that the third utterance merely emphasized the second is accepted, but not that the second emphasized the first. A wife who has not been consummated separates with the first pronouncement, and anything said after it does not attach to her.

Section
(On exception clauses in divorce)

It is valid to exclude one-half or less of the stated divorces or divorced wives, provided the exception is joined without a break and he intends it before finishing the clause from which it is excluded. Thus, “You are divorced twice, except once” counts as one divorce, and “thrice, except once”