posed by transgressors, who do not question the validity of the marriage while the husband is having intercourse with her and enjoying intimacy with her. Only after she has been divorced three times do they begin seeking grounds to invalidate the marriage so that it cannot be said that the divorce took effect.

This is opposition to Allah’s command. When intercourse was unlawful, he neither exercised due care nor asked about it; yet once Allah forbade it, he began asking about grounds on which intercourse might be made lawful. A man who behaves in this way commits what is forbidden by the consensus of the Muslims and is a sinner. For this woman’s first marriage must either have been valid or not.

If it was valid, the three divorces took effect, and intercourse with her before she marries another husband is forbidden. If the first marriage was invalid, intercourse within it was forbidden, and this husband has not repented of that intercourse. He only asked after divorcing her, so that the divorce would not take effect. Thus, they sought grounds that would make the earlier intercourse unlawful in order to deem subsequent intercourse lawful. This is opposition to Allah and His Messenger and the spreading of corruption in the land.

If this man has divorced her three times, let him fear Allah, stay away from her, and observe Allah’s limits, for whoever transgresses Allah’s limits has wronged himself. And Allah knows best.

He was asked:

A man married a woman with an unrelated man acting as her marriage guardian, although her own guardian was less than the distance permitting the shortening of prayers away. He believed that the unrelated man was a judge. He consummated the marriage with her, and she bore him offspring. He then divorced her three times and subsequently wished to