and applied it generally, without excluding release for compensation effected through the word “divorce” or prescribing any particular wording for it, despite knowing that it was effected through the word “divorce” more often than through other expressions. Indeed, ordinary people do not know the terms “annulment,” “khulʿ,” and the like unless someone teaches them, nor do they distinguish between one expression and another. Many of them, when told, “Grant your wife khulʿ,” divorce her without compensation and say, “I have granted her khulʿ.” They do not distinguish between the expressions unless the intended purpose of one of them is explained to them.
Among the people of Yemen, to this day, a woman says to her husband, “Divorce me.” He replies, “Offer me compensation.” She then offers him her dowry or something else, and he divorces her. This is how most of their divorces take place. Ibn ʿAbbās ruled for them that this was release for compensation and separation, not divorce. He also restored a woman to her husband after two divorces and one release for compensation. Thus, what Ibn ʿAbbās transmitted, his legal ruling, and his reasoning from the Quran all support this view.
Just as this follows from Ahmad’s statements and principles, it also follows from the principles of Islamic law and the texts of the Lawgiver. For contracts are judged by their purposes and meanings, not their wording. If two expressions serve the same purpose, their legal rulings cannot differ. If a person could choose to make the same transaction a divorce or not a divorce, that would amount to manipulation, which is invalid.
They have raised the following objection: if the husband of an emancipated woman gives her the choice, she may divorce herself, or she may annul the marriage on account of her emancipation. They say: “She therefore has a choice between the two. Likewise, in return for compensation, a husband has the power either to effect an annulment or to effect a divorce.”
This analogy is weak. If this woman divorces herself, the divorce is only revocable; she therefore has the choice between