regarding those three men, for he wished that his Companions and his entire community should repent and return to Allah.
Kaʿb continues: “So I set out straight for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, intending nothing else. People met me in droves—group after group—congratulating me on the repentance that Allah had accepted from me.”
These believers loved for their brothers what they loved for themselves; they felt no envy over the grace Allah had bestowed on them by revealing a mighty Qur’anic passage about their repentance. Rather, they went on congratulating them until Kaʿb entered the mosque.
From this portion of the ḥadith we learn several points:
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The severity of the Prophet’s ﷺ boycott of the three, to the extent that he ordered them to keep away from their wives. Separating a man from his wife is a grave matter.
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A husband’s saying to his wife, “Join your family,” is not in itself a divorce, for Kaʿb ibn Mālik distinguished between those words and an explicit pronouncement of divorce. If a man tells his wife, “Join your family,” without intending divorce, it is not a divorce. Should he intend divorce, however, then the Prophet ﷺ has said, “Actions are only by intentions, and every person shall have only what he intended.” Thus, if someone utters this or similar words while intending divorce, it counts according to what he intended.
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The exemplary obedience of the Companions—may Allah be pleased with them—to the Prophet’s ﷺ command: Kaʿb did not hesitate, nor did he say, “Perhaps I should go back to the Messenger ﷺ,” nor did he tell the envoy whom the Prophet ﷺ had sent, “Return to him; perhaps he will allow it,”