newly concluded, during the waiting period or after it. Release for compensation thus results in minor, not major, irrevocable separation. Major irrevocable separation resulting from three divorces occurs when he pronounces them in the permissible, prescribed manner: he divorces her once during a period of purity in which he has not had intercourse with her, or divorces her once when her pregnancy has become evident, and leaves her until her waiting period ends, then marries her under a new contract. He may also take her back during the waiting period. Once he has remarried her or taken her back, he may divorce her a second time in the prescribed manner.

If he pronounces three divorces in a single utterance, or in separate utterances without an intervening resumption of the marriage or a new marriage contract, this is prohibited according to the majority. This is the position of Mālik and, according to the well-known report from him, Abū Hanīfa. Indeed, even pronouncing the three divorces in separate periods of purity, without an intervening resumption of the marriage or a new contract, is prohibited according to Mālik and, according to the well-known report from him, Ahmad.

If he pronounces three divorces in a prohibited manner, do three divorces take effect, or only one? There are two well-known views among the early and later scholars, as has been explained at length elsewhere.

If the view is taken that the three do not take effect, then he has no power to bring about major irrevocable separation through a single utterance. Since he has no such power, she may not offer him compensation for something he has no power to effect. Thus, if she offers him compensation for the three prohibited divorces, she is offering him compensation for something that he is forbidden to do and has no power to effect. If he pronounces them, only what is permissible takes effect; and what is permissible in return for compensation is minor, not major, irrevocable separation.

Indeed, even if he has already divorced her twice and she offers him compensation for separation, whether expressed using the word “divorce” or otherwise, a third divorce does not take effect according to our position that separation in return for compensation is a dissolution resulting in minor irrevocable separation. If he separates from her in this situation, whether using the word “divorce” or otherwise, this brings about “minor irrevocable separation,” which is dissolution