Husbands, watch your tongue

n3.1 The words that effect a divorce may be plain or allusive. Plain words effect the divorce whether one intends divorce by them or not, while allusive words do not effect it unless one intends divorce by them.

n3.2 Using plain words to effect a divorce means expressly pronouncing the word divorce (O: or words derived from it). When the husband says' `` I divorce you,'' or `` You are divorced,'' the wife is divorced whether he has made the intention or not.

(A: Here and in the rulings below, expressions such as ``The wife is divorced,'' or ``The divorce is effected,'' mean just one of the three times (def: n9.0(N:)) necessary to finalize it, unless the husband thereby intends a two-or threefold divorce (dis: n3.5) or repeats the words three times.)

n3.3 Using allusive words to effect a divorce includes:

(1) the husband's saying, ``You are now alone,'' ``You are free,'' ``You are separated,'' ``You are parted,'' ``You are no longer lawful to me,'' ``Rejoin your kin,'' ``You are footloose,'' and the like;

(2) his saying, ``I am divorced from you'';

(3) or when he commissions the wife to pronounce the divorce, and she says, ``You are divorced'';

(4) when someone asks. ``Do you have a wife?'' and he says ``No''.

(5) or when the husband writes words that effect the divorce (O: no matter whether able or unable to speak at the time of writing, or whether he is present or absent, or whether he writes in plain or allusive words). When one intends divorce by any of the above, the words effect it, but if one does not, they do not.

n3.4 When a husband is asked, ``Have you divorced your wife?'' and he says ``Yes,'' then she is divorced (O: even if he does not intend).

n3.5 If the husband says, ``You are divorced,'' and thereby intends a two-or threefold pronouncement, then whatever number he intends is effected, this rule holding for all words that effect divorce, whether plain or allusive. (O: The proof that a single pronouncement can validly effect a threefold divorce is the hadith classified as rigorously authenticated (sahih) by Ibn Hibban that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), when Rukana divorced his wife and then said, ``I did not intend it except as one time,'' made him swear an oath to that effect, and then returned her to him. If a single pronouncement could not effect a threefold divorce, there would not have been any point in the Prophet's making him swear

the oath (Allah bless him and give him peace).)

n3.6 Text only available in Arabic

n3.7 If a husband tells his wife, ``You are divorced in sha' Allah [if Allah wills],'' or ``if Allah does not will,'' or ``unless Allah wills,'' then the divorce is not effected.