invalidity. Yet they offer no sound distinction to justify this exception. This has given those who dispute their principle that prohibition entails invalidity grounds to challenge them, citing the cases they themselves concede. This, however, is a dialectical argument: it does not establish the truth of the challenger’s position. It establishes only that his opponents have erred, either in the supposed counterexamples or in the issue under dispute. Their error in one of these does not entail that their error concerns the disputed issue.
Rather, this is a fundamental principle upon which many rulings of Islamic law depend. It cannot therefore be overturned by the opinions of certain scholars who have neither a scriptural text nor consensus to support them. Indeed, the established principles and scriptural texts do not support their position; they contradict it. Whoever reflects upon the Quran and Sunnah will see clearly that Allah has never prescribed unlawful divorce at all. As for irrevocable divorce, He has prescribed it before consummation and after the waiting period has expired.
Some scholars say to those who count three pronouncements of divorce made together as only one: “You have contradicted ʿUmar. The practice of treating them as binding became established during his time.” Some even regard this as a consensus. They may be answered: “You yourselves have contradicted ʿUmar concerning a position famously reported from him, on which the Companions agreed—indeed, a position supported by the Quran and Sunnah—for some of you permit a marriage arranged to make a woman lawful again for her former husband.”
It is authentically reported that ʿUmar said: “If a man who contracts such a marriage and the former husband for whose benefit it is contracted are brought before me, I will stone them both.”
The Companions agreed that this practice was forbidden, including ʿUthmān, ʿAlī, Ibn Masʿūd, Ibn ʿAbbās, Ibn ʿUmar and others. No Companion is known to have restored a woman to her former husband through such an arranged marriage. ʿUmar and the rest of the Companions are supported by the Quran