Book of Divorce
Chapter: The Legal Ruling on Divorce and its Sunnah

A divorce that initiates the ʿidda is permissible, even if the wife dislikes it, whether she has behaved badly or well, and whether the marriage has been consummated or not. Nevertheless, a man who divorces frequently is censured, for such conduct is not among praiseworthy manners.

The divorce pronounced by every sane, adult Muslim is binding—whether he is slave or free, fully autonomous or under a guardian’s authority. According to Mālik and the majority of the scholars of Medina, the divorce (and likewise the manumission) pronounced by an intoxicated person is binding. By contrast, a divorce uttered under coercion is not binding if he had no intention of divorcing.

A boy’s divorce is invalid until he reaches puberty, and the same applies to the insane, the unconscious until they recover, and those afflicted by recurrent or continuous insanity. Mālik held that a divorce pronounced by a non-Muslim while he is still in a state of unbelief is not binding, though other jurists disagreed. The mute’s divorce is valid if he conveys it by an intelligible gesture or in writing.

Divorce has a Sunnah that should not be transgressed; whoever oversteps it has disobeyed his Lord, wronged himself, and is held accountable for what he did. The Sunnah concerns only the divorce of a wife with whom the marriage has been consummated. For a woman with whom it has not been consummated there is neither Sunnah nor bidʿa, and her husband may divorce her whenever he wishes.