twice or three times before taking her back or entering into a new marriage contract, this constitutes a prohibited, innovated form of divorce according to the majority of earlier and later scholars. This is the position of Mālik, Abū Hanīfah, and their followers, as well as Ahmad’s later position and the view preferred by most of his followers. Whether a prohibited divorce takes legal effect is disputed among earlier and later scholars.
This has been discussed at length elsewhere, along with the authentic report in the Sahīh from Ibn ‘Abbās, who said:
“During the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—the time of Abū Bakr, and the early part of ‘Umar’s caliphate, triple divorce counted as one. When people increasingly resorted to it, ‘Umar said: ‘People have acted hastily in a matter in which they had been allowed time. Why not enforce it against them?’ So he enforced it against them.”
We have discussed this hadith and what people have said about it at length elsewhere. We also mentioned the other hadith that agrees with it, reported by Imam Ahmad and others through Muhammad ibn Ishāq, from Dāwūd ibn al-Husayn, from ‘Ikrimah, from Ibn ‘Abbās:
“Rukānah divorced his wife three times. When he came to the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—asked him: ‘In one sitting or in several?’ He replied: ‘In a single sitting.’ So he restored her to him.”
Ahmad ibn Hanbal authenticated this hadith and explained that it is more authentic than the version of Rukānah’s hadith stating that he divorced her ‘definitively,’ and that:
“The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—required him to swear: ‘Did you intend only one divorce?’ He replied: ‘I intended only one divorce.’ So he restored her to him.”
The narrators of this latter report are of unknown standing: neither their integrity nor their accuracy in retaining what they narrated is known. For this reason, it was judged weak by Ahmad, Abū ‘Ubayd, Ibn Hazm, and others