What is the ruling when a husband pronounces divorce three times using a single utterance?
General Chapter
Al-Mughni
Book of Divorce
Primary text
If a husband pronounces divorce three times in one word or phrase, the triple divorce takes effect immediately. The wife becomes irrevocably forbidden (haram) to him until she marries another man and that marriage is consummated and subsequently dissolved. This ruling applies whether the marriage had been consummated or not. This position is held by Ibn Abbas, Abu Hurairah, Ibn Umar, Abdullah ibn Amr, Ibn Mas'ud, Anas, and the majority of early scholars among the Tabi'un and subsequent Imams. The legal reasoning supports this: since marriage is a possession that can be removed sequentially, it can also be removed simultaneously. The narration from Ubadah ibn al-Samit concerning a father who pronounced divorce a thousand times indicates that the initial three divorces count, and the rest are counted as sin.
Supporting text
Some scholars, including Ata, Tawus, Sa'id ibn Jubayr, Abu al-Sha'tha, and Amr ibn Dinar, hold that pronouncing three divorces at once on a virgin wife results in only one divorce. Tawus reported from Ibn Abbas that during the time of the Messenger of Allah (PBUH), Abu Bakr, and two years into Umar's caliphate, triple divorce counted as one. However, other narrations from Ibn Abbas, reported by Sa'id ibn Jubayr, Amr ibn Dinar, Mujahid, and Malik ibn al-Harith, contradict this, and Ibn Abbas himself issued rulings contrary to the narration reported by Tawus.