and its relevance presents itself here, so I shall mention it because of its cogency and because the need for it is pressing.

The scholars have disagreed about the ruling on a man who issues the triple divorce in a single instant, or pronounces it in three consecutive statements without a revocation occurring between them. Does the full set of three divorces take effect, so that his wife becomes unlawful to him until she marries another husband, he consummates the marriage with her, and she completes a waiting period from him? Or is it counted as only one revocable divorce, allowing him to take her back so long as she is still in her ʿiddah, and, once that period ends, to remarry her with a new contract even if she has not married anyone else?

The scholars have disputed this point at great length, and a number of leading imams and scholars were persecuted for holding the view that it counts as a single revocable divorce—among them Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah and some of his followers.

This hostility stems from the fact that the opinion that all three divorces take effect is the well-known position of the four schools. It is as though anyone who departs from it—whether compelled by the force of the proofs or by following an earlier imam of the community—is deemed to be in error. May Allah destroy partisanship and base desires. The discussion itself is extensive.

Here, however, we shall present a concise summary that should suffice.

The majority of scholars—including the four imams and most of the Companions and Successors—maintain that the triple divorce pronounced in a single phrase, such as a man saying, “You are divorced three times,” or in several phrases with no revocation between them, results in the full three divorces.

Their evidence is the ḥadīth of Rukānah ibn ʿAbd Allāh. He divorced his wife with the term al-batta (“irrevocable”), then informed the Prophet ﷺ of what he had done. The Prophet ﷺ asked him, “By Allah, did you intend only one?”

Rukānah replied, “By Allah, I intended only one,” and the Prophet ﷺ put him under oath to that effect three times.

This ḥadīth was transmitted by al-Shāfiʿī, Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī—who declared it sound—, Ibn Ḥibbān, and al-Ḥākim.

The point of evidence is that the Prophet ﷺ required the divorcer to swear that he had meant only a single divorce; this shows that had he intended more, the additional divorces would have taken effect.

They also cite the report in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī from ʿĀʾishah: “A man divorced his wife three times; she then married another man and was divorced.” People asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, “Is she lawful for the first husband?” He answered, “No, not until the second has tasted of her sweetness just as the first did.” Had the triple divorce not taken effect, she would not have been barred from returning to the first husband until after the second had consummated the marriage with her.