is present, then the ruling involves some detail:

• If what you meant was merely to bar yourself from entering and you did not intend to divorce your wife, your statement is treated as an oath (yamin). You must therefore offer the expiation for an oath, which is to feed ten needy persons—giving each person one mudd (a dry measure of roughly three-quarters of a kilogram) or half a saʿ of staple food—or to clothe them, providing each person with a garment sufficient for him to pray in. Once this expiation is paid, your oath is dissolved and you may enter the room and stay with your colleague.

• If, however, you intended divorce and not an oath, and you made the divorce conditional upon your entering the room, then the moment you enter the divorce takes effect. Because the marriage has not yet been consummated, the separation is final (bāʾin) and you have no right to take her back. If the number of pronouncements is fewer than three, you may contract a new marriage with her, provided she agrees and her guardian consents.

• But if the divorce amounts to three pronouncements, she is separated from you with a major, irrevocable separation and is not lawful for you again until she has first married another husband.

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Question: A man divorced his wife three separate times. After the third pronouncement he consulted a man who is a memoriser of the Qur’an, and that man returned her to him. The couple are now living together and she has borne him two sons since the return. What is the ruling in this case, and what becomes of the children if the return was invalid?

Answer: So long as a legal opinion has already been issued on the matter by a recognised scholar, there is no need to revisit it a second time. If, however, he is unsure about the soundness of that opinion, or doubts the knowledge or piety of the person who issued it, he must refer the case to the muftī or the judge in his own country so that the circumstances and the various statements can be examined. As for merely posing a question about this