Chapter: Doubt concerning divorce, the wife’s return under the remainder of her revocable divorces, and divorce pronounced before marriage.

Mālik—may Allah have mercy on him—maintained that when a man swears an oath of divorce regarding some matter and then becomes unsure whether he has broken it or not, he ought to separate from his wife, though the court should not compel him to do so. Ibn al-Qāsim held instead that the divorce becomes binding upon him.

There is no disagreement that if the man is uncertain whether he ever divorced her at all, nothing is incumbent upon him, nothing becomes binding, and the marriage remains valid.

If he is certain that he did swear by divorce but does not know whether he swore by one, two, or three pronouncements, and then violates the oath, Mālik rules that three divorces take effect.

Mālik is likewise unwavering in his view that if a man divorces one of his wives but cannot recall which one, all of them are deemed divorced.

Whoever says, “I do not know whether I swore and then broke the oath or not,” incurs no liability.

The scholars are also unanimous that anyone who dies while still uncertain about his divorce