rather, reports have been transmitted on this matter, but the hadith scholars agree that they are all weak—indeed, fabricated.

What is recorded in Sahīh Muslim and other Sunan and Musnad collections, however, is the report transmitted by Tāwūs from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said:

“During the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), during Abū Bakr’s caliphate, and for two years of ʿUmar’s caliphate, a triple divorce counted as one. Then ʿUmar said, ‘People have been hasty in a matter in which they had time to proceed deliberately. What if we were to hold them to it?’ So he held them to it.”

In another version recorded by Muslim and others, Tāwūs reported that Abū al-Sahbāʾ said to Ibn ʿAbbās:

“Do you know that three divorces were counted as one during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), during Abū Bakr’s caliphate, and for three years of ʿUmar’s rule?”

Ibn ʿAbbās replied, “Yes.”

In another version, Abū al-Sahbāʾ said to Ibn ʿAbbās:

“Tell me something from your reports: did not a triple divorce count as one during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and during Abū Bakr’s caliphate?”

He replied:

“That was indeed the case. But during ʿUmar’s time, people began resorting to divorce in rapid succession, so he made it binding upon them.”

Imam Ahmad narrated in his Musnad: Saʿīd ibn Ibrāhīm told us: My father told us, from Muhammad ibn Ishāq, who said: Dāwūd ibn al-Husayn told me, from ʿIkrimah, the freedman of Ibn ʿAbbās, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said:

“Rukānah ibn ʿAbd Yazīd, a member of Banū al-Muttalib, divorced his wife three times in a single sitting and grieved deeply over losing her. The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) asked him, ‘How did you divorce her?’

“He replied, ‘I divorced her three times.’

“He asked, ‘In a single sitting?’

“He replied, ‘Yes.’

“He said, ‘That counts only as one divorce, so take her back if you wish.’ So he took her back.”

Ibn ʿAbbās therefore held that divorce was to be pronounced in each period of purity. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Maqdisī also included this report in his book al-Mukhtārah, which is more authentic than Sahīh al-Hākim. Abū Dāwūd and others likewise transmitted it through the report of