He answered:

Praise be to Allah. The marriage is valid and need not be contracted anew. The “Ibn Surayj device,” when its formula is not uttered, does not invalidate the marriage, by scholarly consensus. However, if he subsequently divorces her, that divorce takes effect according to the overwhelming majority of scholars, including the followers of Mālik, Ahmad and Abū Hanīfah, and many—if not most—of al-Shāfi‘ī’s followers.

He—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—was asked:

A man’s wife asked him for a divorce, so he divorced her and said, “I will never return to her again.” A friend of his met him and said, “I will not believe you about this unless you say, ‘Whenever I marry this woman, she is divorced according to Mālik’s school.’” He did not understand the rulings of Islamic law. May he take her back?

He answered:

Praise be to Allah. If by “Whenever I marry her” he intended either taking her back or entering into a new marriage contract—as his words apparently indicate—then whenever he takes her back before her waiting period expires, she is divorced a second time. If he then takes her back again, she is divorced a third time.

If, however, he leaves her until her waiting period expires, she becomes separated from him without his retaining the right to take her back. If he subsequently marries her, those who hold that a divorce made conditional upon marriage takes effect in such a case—such as Abū Hanīfah, Mālik and Ahmad according to one reported opinion—say that she is divorced when he marries her.

As for those who do not hold this view—such as al-Shāfi‘ī and Ahmad according to his well-known opinion—she was revocably divorced when he made her divorce conditional, and a revocably divorced woman is treated as a wife in such matters. But does the intervening separation terminate