the position of Mālik and, according to one of the two reports from him, Ahmad. There is no authentic hadith from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, requiring witnesses to a marriage. This is what Ahmad ibn Hanbal and others stated.

Since no tahlīl marriage was openly practised during the time of ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with him, and he considered enforcing the three divorces a deterrent against the forbidden practice, he did so on the basis of his own legal judgment. However, if the person concerned does not deserve punishment, and enforcing the three divorces leads to tahlīl marriages—which are forbidden by explicit scriptural texts and the consensus of the Companions—as well as harmful beliefs and other evils, it is impermissible to remove a genuine harm by means of greater harms. Rather, counting the three divorces as one in such circumstances, as was done during the time of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and Abū Bakr, is more appropriate. For this reason, some scholars, such as Abū al-Barakāt, issued rulings that the three divorces were binding in certain circumstances but not in others, as has been reported from the Companions.

This was either because they regarded it as a matter of “discretionary punishment,” which may be imposed as the need arises—such as exceeding forty lashes for drinking wine, imposing banishment for it, or shaving the head—or because their legal judgments differed: at times they considered the three divorces binding, and at other times they did not.

In short, whatever the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, prescribed for his community as “binding legislation” cannot be changed, because no abrogation is possible after the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him. It is impermissible to suppose that any Muslim scholar would intend such a thing, especially the Companions, and above all the Rightly Guided Caliphs.

Only people of ignorance and misguidance entertain such suspicions about the Companions, such as the Rāfidah and the Khawārij, who declare some of the caliphs unbelievers or evildoers. Even if it were supposed that someone had done so,