What is the legal ruling if a husband explicitly lists fractional parts of divorce sequentially using conjunctions (e.g., half a divorce AND a third of a divorce AND a sixth of a divorce)?
Chapter on Divorce by Calculation
Al-Mughni
Book of Divorce
Primary text
If the husband states, 'You are divorced by half a divorce and a third of a divorce and a sixth of a divorce' (نصف طلقة وثلث طلقة وسدس طلقة), three divorces occur. This is because conjoining fractional parts of a divorce using 'and' suggests distinct and separate divorces. This is analogous to the grammatical rule where reintroducing a noun without the definite article ('a third') implies a different entity than the first mention, unlike reintroducing it with the definite article ('the third') which implies identity, as seen in Quran 94:5-6 regarding 'Usr' (hardship) and 'Yusr' (ease).
Supporting text
It is argued that if the second mention was intended to refer to the first, a pronoun should have been used. Furthermore, some hold that if the husband had intended the second mention to refer to the first instance, he would have used a pronoun.