and similar righteous deeds that Allah loves and is pleased with—then, because of the immense harm divorce would cause him, he has all the more reason not to perform such deeds. Indeed, the Sharia does not even instruct him to perform them, since the harm resulting from divorce may outweigh the good achieved through these deeds.

This is precisely the harm that Allah and His Messenger removed through His words, Most High:

“Do not make your oaths by Allah an obstacle [to doing good].”

And through the words of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“For one of you to persist in his oath concerning his family is more sinful for him in Allah’s sight than to make expiation.”

If it is said, “He himself has brought upon himself one of these three harms, so should he not refrain from swearing such oaths?”

The answer is: Our Sharia contains no sin which, once committed, leaves a person unable to escape it through repentance except at the cost of grave harm. Allah has not laid upon us a burden like that which He laid upon those before us. Suppose that, by swearing an oath invoking divorce, this man has committed a major sin and then repented of it. How could it accord with the principles of our Sharia that the consequences of that sin should remain binding upon him, with no way out?

This differs from the case of someone who pronounces divorce directly, rather than invoking it in an oath. He does so only because he intends divorce, whether out of dislike for his wife, anger with her, or something similar. Allah has allowed divorce three times. Thus, when a man pronounces divorce only by his own choice, and has three opportunities to do so, harm of this kind will rarely occur. This is unlike the first case, in which his intention was not divorce; rather, it was to