redeeming herself through that compensation, and he is granting her compensated release, whatever wording is used. No one has ever reported that Ibn Abbās and his students, or Ahmad ibn Hanbal, distinguished between compensated release expressed using the word “divorce” and release expressed otherwise. Rather, their statements, in both wording and meaning, encompass all such cases. When al-Shāfi‘ī, may Allah be pleased with him, mentioned the two views on whether compensated release constitutes divorce, he said:

“I think those who said it constitutes divorce were referring to cases in which wording other than ‘divorce’ is used.”

For this reason, Muhammad ibn Nasr and al-Tahāwī stated that there is no disagreement on this point. Yet al-Shāfi‘ī did not report this distinction from anyone; he merely supposed that they drew it. Al-Shāfi‘ī based this on the principle that, even when contracts have the same meaning, their legal effects differ according to their wording. This underlying principle is itself disputed within his school.

As for Ahmad ibn Hanbal, his principles, his explicit statements, and the position of the majority of his followers establish that contracts are judged by their meanings, not their wording. Another view within his school holds that legal effects differ according to wording. This is discussed in connection with using the wording of sale, concluding a sharecropping agreement using the wording of lease, and other such cases.

We have already cited the statements of Ibn Abbās and his students, as well as those of Ahmad and others, and shown that they clearly make no distinction. We have also shown that the principles of Islamic law do not admit such a distinction, nor do Ahmad’s principles. The source of this distinction was al-Shāfi‘ī’s supposition that they drew it.

Elsewhere, we have discussed and demonstrated that the authentic reports on this subject from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, Ibn Abbās, and others clearly indicate that it constitutes compensated release even when expressed using the word “divorce.” This separation is irrevocable. The divorce that Allah Most High mentions in His Book, however, is revocable divorce.