, but, as a Muslim, I dread falling into unbelief.’ The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, asked, ‘Will you return his garden to him?’ She said, ‘Yes.’ The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, ‘Accept the garden and divorce her once.’”

Thus, this report includes ʿIkrimah’s narration “from Ibn ʿAbbās that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, ‘Accept the garden and divorce her once.’”

Yet it is established that Ibn ʿAbbās, ʿIkrimah and others did not count khulʿ as one of the three divorces. Ahmad ibn Hanbal said: “Yahyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qattān narrated to us, from Sufyān, from ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, from Tāwūs, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: ‘Khulʿ is a separation, not a divorce.’”

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ahmad said: “I saw my father adopt Ibn ʿAbbās’s position.” This is also the position of Ishāq, Abū Thawr, Dāwūd and his followers, apart from Ibn Hazm.

ʿAbd al-Razzāq narrated from Ibn ʿUyaynah, from ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, from Tāwūs, that Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd asked him about a man who had divorced his wife twice, after which she obtained khulʿ from him: could he marry her again? Ibn ʿAbbās said: “Yes. Allah mentions divorce in the verse and at its end, with khulʿ between the two.”

ʿAbd al-Razzāq narrated from Ibn Jurayj, from Ibn Tāwūs, who said: “My father did not regard release in return for compensation as divorce, and he would give him the choice between the two.”

Ibn Jurayj said: “ʿAmr ibn Dīnār informed me that he heard ʿIkrimah, who heard Ibn ʿAbbās say: ‘Any separation secured by payment is not divorce.’”

Here, then, ʿIkrimah states that every separation effected in return for payment does not count as one of the three divorces. That is because this is precisely the meaning of the release in return for compensation mentioned in Allah’s Book.