They also disagreed over the reason for prohibiting divorce during menstruation. Is it because it prolongs the waiting period, as the followers of Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī and most of Ahmad’s followers maintain? Or is it because this is a time when the husband has little desire for intercourse with her, so that he may divorce her only at a time when he desires intercourse, since divorce is prohibited and permitted only when there is a need—as the followers of Abū Hanīfa and Abū al-Khattāb among Ahmad’s followers maintain? Or is it a devotional requirement whose rationale cannot be discerned, as some Mālikī scholars maintain? These are the three views.

Some scholars have said that his words, “Tell him to take her back,” do not necessarily mean that the divorce took effect. Rather, when he divorced her in a forbidden manner, he turned away from her and kept apart from her because he thought the divorce had taken effect. He was therefore instructed to restore her to her former situation. Similarly, in the authentic hadith, he said to someone who had sold one sāʿ-measure for two: “This is usury, so return it.”

An authentic report from ʿImrān ibn Husayn relates: “A man emancipated six slaves. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, divided them into three groups, freed two, and returned four to slavery.”

The Sunan collections also relate from Ibn ʿAbbās: “The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, returned Zaynab to her husband Abū al-ʿĀs under their original marriage contract.” This, too, was a case of returning her.

“He instructed ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib to return the slave boy whom he had sold separately from his brother.”

“He instructed Bashīr to take back the slave boy whom he had given to his son.”

There are many similar examples. The term “murājaʿa” (returning) indicates a return to the former state. This may take place through a new marriage contract, as in the words of Allah Most High:

“If he divorces her, there is no blame on either of them if they return to each other.”

It may also take place through each spouse physically returning to the other, even though no divorce has occurred, as when