sanctioned by Islamic law. Punishment applies only to someone who committed the act knowing that it was prohibited. As for someone who did not know it was prohibited and repented upon learning this, he does not deserve punishment. It is therefore impermissible to hold him bound by three divorces pronounced together; rather, only one divorce is binding upon him.

This applies when the divorce is without compensation. If it is in return for compensation, however, it is “a release for compensation,” as explained earlier. Here too, he is not permitted to pronounce three divorces in return for compensation. The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—commanded that only one divorce, and no more, be pronounced in return for compensation, just as only one divorce, and no more, may be pronounced without it. Divorce in return for compensation, however, is a qualified form of divorce: it is a release for compensation and an irrevocable separation. It is not the divorce referred to without qualification in the Book of Allah, for that is revocable divorce.

Thus, if he pronounces three divorces together in return for compensation, and the view is taken that three divorces without compensation count as one, whereas divorce in return for compensation is a release that does not count toward the three, then this separation is a release for compensation that does not count toward the three. The man who has separated from her may marry her under a new contract, and that separation in return for compensation is not counted against him toward the three divorces. The divorce is therefore not binding upon him, since it is prohibited: the two additional divorces are prohibited, whereas the single divorce is permissible. However, of the three, a single divorce in return for compensation is recommended, because it is a release for compensation, not one of the divorces that Allah has limited to three. Rather, he may marry the woman with all three divorces still available to him.

The “essence of the matter” is that irrevocable separation is of two kinds: “major irrevocable separation,” which results from pronouncing the three divorces that make the woman unlawful to him until she marries another husband; and “minor irrevocable separation,” whereby the woman ceases to be his wife, although he may marry her under a contract