an authentic hadith, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is reported to have said:

“Satan sets his throne upon the sea and sends out his troops. Those closest to him in rank are those who cause the greatest strife. One of them comes and says, ‘I kept after him until he drank wine.’ Satan replies, ‘He will soon repent.’ Another comes and says, ‘I kept after him until I separated him from his wife.’ Satan kisses him between the eyes and says, ‘You are the one! You are the one!’”

Scholars of Quranic commentary, hadith, and jurisprudence have related that, in the early days of Islam, people divorced without any numerical limit. A man would divorce his wife, then leave her until her waiting period was nearly over, take her back, and then divorce her again to harm her. Allah therefore limited them to three divorces, because three is the lowest number counted as many and the highest counted as few. Were there no need for divorce, the evidence would require its prohibition, as indicated by the transmitted reports and fundamental principles. Allah Most High, however, permitted it out of mercy for His servants, because they sometimes need it. He prohibited it in certain circumstances, by scholarly consensus: for example, when a man divorces his wife during menstruation without her having requested a divorce. Such a divorce is forbidden by scholarly consensus.

Allah Most High sent Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, with the finest religious law: the easy way of pure monotheism. As he said:

“The religion most beloved to Allah is the easy way of pure monotheism.”

He therefore permitted His believing servants to have intercourse through marriage and through ownership of female slaves. Jews and Christians have intercourse only through marriage, not through ownership of female slaves. The “initial basis of enslavement” is capture in war alone. The spoils of war were made lawful only for the community of Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, as established in the authentic hadith in which he said:

“We have been favored above the prophets in five ways: our ranks have been made like the ranks of the angels