so as to keep himself from doing the act, then—according to the sounder of the two scholarly views—it is treated as an oath, and the expiation for breaking an oath becomes due. Accordingly, if in both incidents your purpose in uttering the divorce formula was merely to restrain yourself and not to make the divorce itself conditional, you must offer an expiation for each occasion; in other words, two expiations are required.

One expiation is for the first instance and another for the second. For each expiation you may:

1. feed ten poor persons, giving each of them half a sāʿ of staple food,
2. clothe ten poor persons, giving each a garment—whether a full outfit or a lower wrap and an upper cloak, in keeping with local custom, or
3. free a slave, if that is possible.

You are free to choose any one of these three options. If you are unable to do any of them, then you must fast three days. Allah knows best.

Question: If the statement “I am bound by triple divorce” is ruled to have effected a divorce, does it count as a single pronouncement or as three?

Answer: The majority of scholars hold that it counts as three divorces when uttered in this wording.

Question: My wife frequently quarrels with my mother in Egypt, and my mother wants me to divorce her. I am torn between my duty to my mother and the fate of my children should a divorce occur. I am a young, practicing Muslim—praise be to Allah—and I do not wish either to incur Allah’s displeasure by divorcing unjustly or to upset my mother, whom Allah has ordered me to obey. I have read that ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar once had a wife he loved, yet his mother wanted him to divorce her, so he went to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and was commanded to divorce her. We request your guidance—may Allah reward you.