and thus falls into valid and invalid forms, just as sale and marriage do. Prohibition in matters of this kind entails the invalidity of what is prohibited. Since the people of pre-Islamic ignorance used to divorce their wives through zihār, and the Lawgiver nullified this because it was a prohibited utterance, the implication is that divorce cannot take effect through any prohibited utterance. They did, after all, intend divorce by the formula of zihār, just as by declaring one’s wife forbidden. This follows by analogy from the foundational principles of the leading jurists Mālik, al-Shāfi‘ī, and Ahmad. Those who departed from the implications of their own principles regarding divorce did so because of the transmitted reports that had reached them.

When they considered it established that Ibn Umar had counted the divorce he pronounced upon his wife while she was menstruating, they said, “They were better informed about his case,” and followed him in this.

Those who dispute their position say: Ibn Umar and others have always narrated hadiths without scholars necessarily accepting their understanding of them. What matters is what they narrated, not their own views and interpretations. Most scholars rejected Ibn Umar’s interpretation of the Prophet’s words:

“Then reckon it.”

Mālik, Abū Hanīfah, and others rejected his interpretation of the hadith:

“The buyer and seller have the right to choose,”

even though his view accords with the hadith’s apparent meaning. Most scholars also rejected his interpretation of the words:

“So approach your place of cultivation however you wish,”

and his statement that this verse was revealed concerning such-and-such.

The same applies when a narrator’s opinion contradicts what he narrated. Thus, the four imams and others rejected Ibn Abbās’s view that selling a slave woman constitutes her divorce, even though he narrated the hadith about “Barīrah and how the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, gave her the choice after she had been sold and freed.” What matters is what they narrated, not their own views and interpretations.