So the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) restored her to him.”

Abū Dāwūd, who did not narrate in his Sunan the hadith that Ahmad included in his Musnad, said:

“The hadith mentioning ‘absolutely’ is more authentic than Ibn Jurayj’s report that ‘Rukānah pronounced three divorces upon his wife,’ because his own family knew better.”

However, the leading imams versed in the hidden defects of hadith and their legal interpretation—such as Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Bukhārī and others, as well as Abū ʿUbayd, Abū Muhammad ibn Hazm and others—judged the hadith mentioning ‘absolutely’ to be weak. They explained that its narrators were unknown persons whose integrity and accuracy had not been established. Ahmad affirmed the authenticity of the report mentioning three divorces and explained that it was the correct version. For example, he said:

“It is not established in the hadith of Rukānah that he divorced his wife using the word ‘absolutely.’”

He also said:

“The hadith of Rukānah mentioning ‘absolutely’ carries no weight, because Ibn Ishāq narrates it from Dāwūd ibn al-Husayn, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, stating that ‘Rukānah pronounced three divorces upon his wife.’ The people of Medina describe someone who pronounces three divorces as having divorced ‘absolutely.’”

Ahmad initially set aside Ibn ʿAbbās’s hadith only because he considered pronouncing three divorces permissible, agreeing with al-Shāfiʿī. It was therefore possible to say that Rukānah’s hadith had been abrogated. Then, when he retracted that position and it became clear that the Quran and Sunnah permit no divorce other than a revocable divorce, he set aside Ibn ʿAbbās’s hadith because Ibn ʿAbbās had issued a ruling contrary to it. According to one of the two positions reported from Ahmad, this constitutes a defect in the report. According to the other position, however—which his followers adopted—it does not. It therefore follows that his position entails acting upon Ibn ʿAbbās’s hadith.

Elsewhere, he has explained the grounds excusing the imams who exercised independent legal judgment—may Allah be pleased with them—and held those who pronounced all three divorces together bound by all three. One such imam was ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him). For when he saw that people were frequently committing what Allah had forbidden them—combining three divorces—and would not desist without punishment,