These scholars said: “There is no irrevocable divorce in the Book of Allah that counts towards the three divorces at all. Rather, every divorce Allah Most High mentions in the Quran is revocable.”

They also said: “Even if a man tells his wife, ‘You are divorced with one irrevocable divorce,’ only one revocable divorce takes effect.” This is the position of most scholars, including Mālik and al-Shāfi‘ī, and is the apparent position of Ahmad’s school.

They said: “Dividing divorce into revocable and irrevocable categories is contrary to the Book of Allah.” This is the view of the jurists of hadith, the position of al-Shāfi‘ī, and the apparent position of Ahmad’s school. Every divorce without compensation takes effect only as a revocable divorce. Even if a man says, “You are divorced with one irrevocable divorce,” or “with an irrevocable divorce,” only one revocable divorce takes effect according to both of them.

As for compensated release, there is disagreement within their two schools. Whoever adopts the correct view applies this principle consistently: his position remains coherent and does not fall into the contradictions found in other positions. An exception is those followers of al-Shāfi‘ī and Ahmad who say that compensated release expressed using the word “divorce” takes effect as an irrevocable divorce. They thus recognize, in some cases, an irrevocable divorce that counts towards the three, thereby contradicting their own sound principle established by the Quran and Sunnah.

Some of the Zāhirīs said: “If it is effected using the word ‘divorce,’ it constitutes a revocable divorce, not an irrevocable one.” The proponent of this view could not classify it as an irrevocable divorce, since that would contradict the Quran. Yet he thought that using the word “divorce” necessarily made it a divorce, so he classified it as revocable. This is mistaken, for the purpose of a woman redeeming herself can be achieved only through an irrevocable separation. Hence, no disagreement is known among Muslims that compensated release brings about an irrevocable separation. Some, however, regarded the transaction as revocable, saying: “The husband may return the compensation and take her back.”

The position of the four imams and the majority, however, is that the husband has no unilateral right to rescind it. If both spouses agree to rescind it, as when two contracting parties mutually cancel their contract, that is a separate matter of disagreement, discussed in detail elsewhere.