If a man divorces his non-consummated wife by saying 'You are divorced' twice consecutively, what is the ruling?
Chapter on Explicit Divorce and Others
Al-Mughni
Book of Divorce
Primary text
Only one divorce occurs for a non-consummated wife, regardless of whether the husband intended the pronouncement to initiate a new divorce or not, and whether the words were spoken separately or connected. This is the view of Abu Bakr ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Harith, 'Ikrimah, Al-Nakha'i, Hammad ibn Abi Sulayman, Al-Hakam, Al-Thawri, Al-Shafi'i, the Ashab al-Ra'y, Abu 'Ubayd, and Ibn al-Mundhir. Al-Hakam attributed this view to 'Ali, Zayd ibn Thabit, and Ibn Mas'ud.
Supporting text
Malik, Al-Awza'i, and Al-Layth hold that two divorces take effect. Furthermore, if he said it three times, three divorces occur if the utterance was connected, similar to saying, 'You are divorced three times.' The counter-argument against this is that in the case of a non-consummated wife, the pronouncement is separated, meaning the first divorce separates her without requiring waiting ('iddah), so the second pronouncement meets her as a stranger to the marriage, rendering it ineffective because divorce only applies to a living wife.