Are Three Divorces Considered as One?

21-6-2026 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalamu alaykum Is there any one from the salaf (the best three generations) who considered that three divorces in on setting is only one divorce and hence revocable. As some say that shaykh Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Al Qayyim were the only ones who held this view.

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

The view that a divorce pronounced with the word "three" (i.e., saying "I divorce you three times" in one utterance) counts as only one divorce has been attributed by some scholars to a number of the Companions, the Successors (tabi'in), and the Successors of the Successors.

Among the Companions: Abd Al-Rahman Ibn Awf, Al-Zubayr Ibn al-Awwam, Abdullah Ibn Mas'ud, Ali Ibn Abi Talib, and Abdullah Ibn Abbas .

Among the Successors: Ikrimah (the freed slave of Ibn Abbas), Khalas Ibn Amr Al-Hajari Al-Basri, Al-Harith Ibn Yazid Al-Ukli, and Muhammad Ibn Ishaq .

Among the Successors of the Successors: Al-Hajjaj Ibn Artah and Ishaq Ibn Rahwayh .

The only one from whom this view has been transmitted with a connected chain of narration – as far as we have been able to determine – is Ibn Abbas and his freed slave Ikrimah .

It is recorded in Sunan Abu Dawud: "Hammad Ibn Zayd narrated from Ayyub, from Ikrimah, from Ibn Abbas that when a man says "you are divorced three times" in a single utterance, it counts as one divorce. However, Ismail Ibn Ibrahim narrated the same chain through Ayyub and Ikrimah but attributed the statement to Ikrimah himself, without mentioning Ibn Abbas ." (End of quote.)

Scholars have differed over the authenticity of the chain of transmission going back to Ibn Abbas .

Shaykh Al-Albani said in Sahih Sunan Abi Dawud: "I say: its chain is authentic according to the standard of Muslim, and Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar judged it authentic, as I have cited from him in Al-Irwa." (End of quote.)

Shaykh Al-Mu'allimi,may Allaah have mercy on him, said in Al-Hukm Al-Mashru' Fi Al-Talaq Al-Majmu': "It appears that both are correct, since there is nothing preventing Ayyub from narrating it at one time from Ikrimah from Ibn Abbas, and at another time from Ikrimah as his own statement. But if you insist on preference, then people have differed as to which narrator is more reliable: Hammad or Isma'il – that is, Ibn Ulayyah. Uthman Ibn Abi Shaybah gave preference to Ibn Ulayyah. And Yahya Ibn Ma'in said: Hammad Ibn Zayd is more reliable than Abd Al-Warith, Ibn Ulayyah, Al-Thaqafi, and Ibn Uyaynah. He also said: no one was more reliable in (transmitting from) Ayyub than him ." (End of quote.)

It is recorded in Musannaf Abd Al-Razzaq: "...He (Ayub) said: 'I saw Tawus raise his hands in astonishment at that, and said: 'By Allah, Ibn Abbas never considered it anything but one.'"(End of quote.)

Al-Jassas said in Ahkam Al-Qur'an: "It is said that this is among the matters in which Tawus erred, for he – despite his eminence, virtue, and righteousness – was much given to error, narrating objectionable and denounced things, among them that he reported from Ibn Abbas that he said: whoever divorces three times, it is considered to be one; and he reported, through more than one chain of narration, from Ibn Abbas, that whoever divorces his wife by the number of the stars, she is separated from him by three (divorces). They said: Ayyub used to express astonishment at how frequently Tawus erred." (End of quote.)

Shaykh Al-Amin Al-Shanqiti (may Allah have mercy on him), in Adwa' Al-Bayan, stated: "Know that it has not been authentically established from Ibn Abbas that he issued the ruling that a triple divorce pronounced in a single utterance counts as one divorce. As for what Abu Dawud narrated through the chain of Hammad Ibn Zayd, from Ayyub Al-Sakhtiyani, from Ikrimah that Ibn Abbas said: "If a man says, 'You are divorced three times' in a single utterance, then it counts as one divorce," this is contradicted by what Abu Dawud himself narrated through the chain of Isma'il Ibn Ibrahim Ibn Ulayyah, from Ayyub, from Ikrimah namely that this statement is actually the saying of Ikrimah and not the saying of Ibn Abbas . The narration of Isma'il Ibn Ibrahim is given preference over the narration of Hammad because the hadith masters agreed with Isma'il in reporting that Ibn Abbas considered it to count as three divorces, not one." (End of quote.)

As for the rest of those mentioned from among the Companions, Successors, and Successors of the Successors, we did not find anyone who transmitted this from them with a connected chain.

Those who attribute this view to the remaining Companions mentioned — Ali Ibn Abi Talib, Al-Zubayr Ibn Al-Awwam, Abd Al-Rahman Ibn Awf, and Abdullah Ibn Mas'ud - rely on what Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Mughith Al-Tulaytuli who died in 459 AH, stated: "Divorce is divided into two types: divorce of the Sunnah, and divorce of innovation. Divorce of the Sunnah is that which occurs in the manner the Shari'ah has encouraged. Divorce of innovation is its opposite – that is, divorcing her during menstruation, or during postpartum bleeding, or three times in a single utterance; and if he does so, the divorce is binding upon him. Then the scholars differed, after their agreement that the divorce occurs, as to how many divorces are binding upon him. Ali Ibn Abi Talib and Ibn Mas'ud, may Allaah be pleased them, said: One divorce is binding upon him, and this was also said by Ibn Abbas... and Al-Zubayr Ibn Al-Awwam and Abd Al-Rahman ibn Awf said the same. And we have been transmitted all of this from Ibn Wadhdhah." (Abridged from Al-Muqni' by Ibn Mughith, p. 80.)

Ibn Mughith did not mention any chain of transmission for attributing this view to the Companions named, but said: "We have been transmitted all of this from Ibn Wadhdhah."

Furthermore, it is recorded in the biographical entry on Ibn Wadhdhah. in Siyar A'lam Al-Nubala' by Al-Dhahabi: "Ibn Wadhdhah, the Imam, the Hafiz, the hadith-scholar of Al-Andalus along with Baqi, Abu Abdullah, Muhammad Ibn Wadhdhah Ibn Bazi' Al-Marwani, the freed slave of the master of Al-Andalus Abd Al-Rahman Ibn Mu'awiyah Al-Dakhil. He was born in the year one hundred and ninety-nine... Ibn Al-Faradi said: he (Ibn Wadhdhah) would often say, 'this is not at all from the speech of the Prophet 'when it was in fact established as authentic from his speech. He also said: And he has many recorded errors attributed to him, and he would make mistakes and errors in the texts, and he had no knowledge of Arabic grammar, nor of jurisprudence. Ibn Wadhdhah died in Muharram, in the year two hundred eighty-seven." (Abridged citation.)

Some scholars who held that three divorces count as one have cited, in support of establishing this view among the Companions, the statement of Ibn Abbas in the hadith narrated by Muslim in his Sahih: "During the time of the Messenger of Allah Abu Bakr and the first two years of Umar's caliphate, a threefold divorce was counted as one."

Ibn Al-Qayyim said in Zad Al-Ma'ad: "The Prophet  passed away leaving behind more than one hundred thousand individuals, all of whom had seen him and heard from him. Do you have authentic reports from all of them, or even from a tenth of them, or a tenth of a tenth, or a tenth of a tenth of a tenth, that affirm the obligation of (counting) three divorces issued in a single utterance"?

Even if you exerted every effort, you would not be able to transmit this from even twenty individuals among them at all – especially given the differences reported from them on this matter.

Two opinions have been authentically reported from Ibn Abbas, and it has been authentically reported from Ibn Mas'ud the view that it is binding as three, whilst in another narration it has been reported that he withheld judgment.

If we were to outnumber you with the Companions for whom triple divorce during their time was treated as one, they would be many times greater than those from whom the opposite view has been transmitted. We could outnumber you with every Companion who died up to the early period of the caliphate of Umar Ibn Al-Khattab and it is sufficient for us that their foremost, best, and most virtuous among them, along with those of the Companions present in his time, support this position. Rather, if we wished, we could say – while being truthful in our statement – that this was an earlier consensus (ijmāʿ) in which not even two differed during the time of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq . However, that consensus period had not yet ended when disagreement later arose. Thus, the first consensus did not remain firmly established before the Companions split into two opinions, and the disagreement among the Muslim community has continued up to the present day." (End quote.)

This argument was not accepted by many scholars. Mulla Ali Al-Qari said in Mirqat Al-Mafatih: "First: Their (Companions) consensus is apparent, for it has not been reported from any of them that he opposed Umar Ibn Al-Khattab when he enforced the ruling of counting three divorces as binding. And it is not necessary, in transmitting a consensus ruling from a hundred individuals, to name each one explicitly; otherwise, establishing a single ruling would require a large volume. Therefore, this is considered a tacit consensus. Second: What matters in transmitting consensus is the transmission from the juristic scholars (mujtahidun), not the general masses. The hundred-thousand or so people who remained after the death of the Prophet did not include more than about twenty juristic scholars among them, such as the Rightly Guided Caliphs, the group of Companions known as "Al-'Abadilah", Zayd Ibn Thabit, Muadh Ibn Jabal, Anas Ibn Malik, Abu Hurairah and a few others. The rest would refer back to them and seek their legal opinions. We have already established explicit reports from most of them affirming the implementation of three divorces, and no opposing view from them has been established. (End quote.)

Similarly, it is recorded in Al-Nasikh Wal-Mansukh Fi Al-Qur'an Al-Karim by Qadi Abu Bakr Ibn Al-Arabi Al-Ma'afiri : "A people erred, in the latter times, saying: divorce in one utterance does not bind (as three), and they made it one, attributing it to the early predecessors, and relating it from Ali, Al-Zubayr, Abd Al-Rahman Ibn Awf, Ibn Mas'ud, and Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them,… and what they attributed to the Companions is sheer fabrication, with no basis at all, neither in any book nor in any transmission from anyone." (Abridged citation.)

Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar said in Fath Al-Bari: "What occurred in this matter is exactly parallel to what occurred in the matter of mut'ah (temporary marriage) — namely, the statement of Jabir that it used to be practiced during the time of the Prophet Abu Bakr and part of Umar's caliphate; he said: then Umar forbade us from it, and we desisted. The stronger view, in both cases, is the prohibition of mut'ah and binding effect of a triple divorce as three, due to the consensus that was formed during Umar's era on that matter, and it is not recorded that anyone, during Umar's era, opposed him in either of the two matters. Their consensus indicates the existence of an abrogating ruling, even though it had been hidden from some of them before that, until it became apparent to all of them during Umar's era. Thus, whoever disagrees after this consensus is opposing it, and the majority of scholars hold that one who introduces disagreement after agreement (has been reached) is not to be given consideration. And Allah knows best." (End of quote.)

Lastly, it is stated in Sayr Al-Hāthth Ilā ʿIlm Al-Ṭalāq Al-Thalāth: "Then Ibn Rajab Al-Hanbali said in this book: 'Section: Know that it has not been authentically established from any of the Companions, nor from any of their Successors, nor from any of the early imams whose opinions are relied upon in legal rulings concerning the lawful and unlawful, that a triple divorce pronounced after consummation counts as a single divorce when it is uttered in one expression.” (End quote.)

Allah Knows best