When does a suspended divorce (Ta'liq al-Talaq) take effect?
Chapter on Explicit Divorce and Others
Al-Mughni
Book of Divorce
Primary text
A divorce suspended upon a specific time or attribute does not take effect until that attribute or time is fulfilled. This is the position held by Ibn Abbas, Atta, Jabir ibn Zayd, Nakha'i, Abu Hashim, Thawri, Shafi'i, Ishaq, Abu Ubayd, and the Ahl al-Ra'y (proponents of juristic reasoning). The evidence rests on the permissibility of suspending ownership revocation by attributes, analogous to manumission (I'taq), which is validly suspended by conditions. Furthermore, Ibn Abbas ruled that if a man tells his wife, 'You are divorced until the head of the year,' he may have conjugal relations during that period. The condition not yet occurring means the divorce has not taken place, similar to saying, 'You are divorced when the Hajj pilgrims arrive.' This is a suspension of the divorce decree itself, not an invalid temporal restriction on the marriage contract.
Supporting text
The opposing view, held by Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib, Hasan, Zuhri, Qatadah, Yahya al-Ansari, Rabi'ah, and Malik, is that if the divorce is suspended upon an attribute that must inevitably occur, such as 'You are divorced when the sun rises' or 'when Ramadan enters,' the divorce takes effect immediately. They argue this is because the marriage contract cannot be temporarily stipulated by time, just as marrying for a fixed month is impermissible.