a divorced woman” who has been divorced fewer than three times: if she marries another husband who consummates the marriage, does she return to her first husband with three divorces available to him anew? This is the position of Ibn ʿAbbās and Ibn ʿUmar, the school of Abū Hanīfah, and one view reported from ʿUmar. It rests on the understanding that consummation with another husband erases the effect of fewer than three divorces just as it erases the effect of three. Or does she return with only the remaining number of divorces available to her first husband? This is the position of ʿUmar and other senior Companions, and the view adopted by Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, and Ahmad, according to the well-known report from him. It rests on the understanding that consummation with the second husband merely marks the end of the prohibition established by three divorces: that prohibition alone is removed by it. A woman divorced fewer than three times has not become forbidden to her first husband, so consummation removes nothing in her case. Abū Hurayrah gave his ruling according to this latter view.

He then asked ʿUmar, who endorsed his ruling and said: “Had you ruled otherwise, I would have given you a painful beating.” That Abū Hurayrah likewise gave rulings on intricate “questions of jurisprudence” alongside the jurists among the Companions, such as Ibn ʿAbbās and others, is very well known. His transmitted legal opinions demonstrate this.

Even if ʿUmar and ʿAlī were more learned in jurisprudence than ʿImrān ibn Husayn and Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, that did not disqualify the latter two as jurists. Likewise, even if Muʿādh, Ibn Masʿūd, and others were more learned in jurisprudence than Abū Hurayrah, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, and others, that did not disqualify the latter as jurists.

(Second: This objector should be told that all the scholars of the Muslim community have acted upon hadith narrated by Abū Hurayrah even where they run counter to analogical reasoning and the apparent meaning of the texts. Thus, they all acted upon his report that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“A man must not be married to a woman and her paternal or maternal aunt at the same time.”

Abū Hanīfah also acted