The Quran

229

الطَّلاقُ مَرَّتانِ ۖ فَإِمساكٌ بِمَعروفٍ أَو تَسريحٌ بِإِحسانٍ ۗ وَلا يَحِلُّ لَكُم أَن تَأخُذوا مِمّا آتَيتُموهُنَّ شَيئًا إِلّا أَن يَخافا أَلّا يُقيما حُدودَ اللَّهِ ۖ فَإِن خِفتُم أَلّا يُقيما حُدودَ اللَّهِ فَلا جُناحَ عَلَيهِما فيمَا افتَدَت بِهِ ۗ تِلكَ حُدودُ اللَّهِ فَلا تَعتَدوها ۚ وَمَن يَتَعَدَّ حُدودَ اللَّهِ فَأُولٰئِكَ هُمُ الظّالِمونَ

Muhammad Asad

A divorce may be [revoked] twice, whereupon the marriage must either be resumed in fairness or dissolved in a goodly manner.¹ And it is not lawful for you to take back anything of what you have ever given to your wives unless both [partners] have cause to fear that they may not be able to keep within the bounds set by God: hence, if you have cause to fear that the two may not be able to keep within the bounds set by God, there shall be no sin upon either of them for what the wife may give up [to her husband] in order to free herself.² These are the bounds set by God; do not, then, transgress them: for they who transgress the bounds set by God - it is they, they who are evildoers!

Lit., "whereupon either retention in fairness or release in a goodly manner". In other words, a third pronouncement of divorce makes it final and irrevocable.
All authorities agree in that this verse relates to the unconditional right on the part of the wife to obtain a divorce from her husband; such a dissolution of marriage at the wife's instance is called khul'. There exist a number of highly-authenticated Traditions to the effect that the wife of Thabit ibn Qays, Jamilah, came to the Prophet and demanded a divorce from her husband on the ground that, in spite of his irreproachable character and behaviour, she "disliked him as she would dislike falling into unbelief after having accepted Islam". Thereupon the Prophet ordained that she should return to Thabit the garden which he has given her as her dower (mahr) at the time of their wedding, and decreed that the marriage should be dissolved. (Several variants of this Tradition have been recorded by Bukhari, Nasa'i, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah and Bayhaqi, on the authority of Ibn 'Abbas.) Similar Traditions, handed down on the authority of 'A'ishah and relating to a woman called Hubaybah bint Sahl, are to be found in the Muwaya' of Imam Malik, in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad, and in the compilations of Nasa'i and Abu Da'ud (in one variant, the latter gives the woman's name as Hafsah bint Sahl). In accordance with these Traditions, Islamic Law stipulates that whenever a marriage is dissolved at the wife's instance without any offence on the part of the husband against his marital obligations, the wife is the contract-breaking party and must, therefore, return the dower which she received from him at the time of concluding the marriage: and in this event "there shall be no sin upon either of them" if the husband takes back the dower which the wife gives up of her own free will. An exhaustive discussion of all these Traditions and their legal implications is found in Nayl al-Awtar VII, pp. 34-41. For a summary of the relevant views of the various schools of Islamic jurisprudence, see Biddyat al-Mujtahid 11, pp. 54-57.