Muhammad ibn Shaybah informed us; Ahmad ibn Jaʿfar al-Mustamli informed us; Abu Muhammad Yahya ibn Ishaq ibn Shakir ibn Ahmad ibn Khabbab informed us; Isa ibn Yunus informed us; Abd Allah ibn al-Walid al-Wassafi informed us, from Muharib ibn Dithar, from Ibn Umar, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Among the lawful things most detested by Allah is divorce.” (1)

Abu Saʿid al-Shurayhi informed us; Abu Ishaq al-Thaʿlabi informed us; Ibn Fanjawayh informed me; Ibn Ubayy informed us; Muhammad ibn Uthman ibn Abi Shaybah informed us; Ubayy informed us; Usamah informed us, from Hammad ibn Zayd, from Abu Ayyub, from Abu Qilabah, from Abu Asma al-Rahabi, from Thawban, who attributed it to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, who said: “Any woman who asks her husband for a divorce without cause, the fragrance of Paradise is forbidden to her.” (2)

Tawus said: Khulʿ is restricted to cases in which marital defiance is feared, based on the apparent meaning of the verse. The verse imposed this restriction in accordance with what is generally customary, since khulʿ ordinarily occurs only when marital defiance is feared. If a man divorces his wife using the wording of divorce in exchange for property, and she accepts, an irrevocable separation takes effect and it counts against the number of divorces.

The scholars differed concerning khulʿ. Most of them held that it is a single irrevocable divorce which counts against the number of divorces. This was the view of Umar, Uthman, Ali, and Ibn Masʿud. Saʿid ibn al-Musayyib, Ata, al-Hasan, al-Shaʿbi, and al-Nakhaʿi also held this view. Malik, al-Thawri, al-Awzaʿi, and the proponents of legal reasoning adopted it as well, and it is the more evident of al-Shafiʿi’s two opinions.

Others held that it is an annulment which does not count against the number of divorces. This was the view of Abd Allah ibn Umar and Abd Allah ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them both; Ikrimah and Tawus also held it, and Ahmad and Ishaq adopted it. They argued that Allah Most High mentions divorce twice, then mentions khulʿ thereafter, and then mentions the third divorce, saying: “If he divorces her, she is not lawful to him thereafter until she marries another husband.” Had khulʿ been a divorce, there would have been four divorces. Those who held the first view regarded the third divorce as: “or release her with good treatment.”