or, 'I have sold you (15) this garment of mine.' He says, 'I accept.' It is valid and sufficient, and he does not need anything in addition to it. If he intended by the metonymy while in a state of anger or a request for divorce something other (16) than divorce, no divorce takes place, because if he had intended it by an explicit expression, it would not have taken place, so it is even more so by metonymy. If he claims that, he is to be believed. But is he believed in a judicial context? The manifest position of Ahmad’s words, in the narration of Abu al-Harith, is that he is to be believed if he was in a state of anger, but not believed if it was an answer to a request for divorce. It was narrated from him in another place that if he says, 'You are released (khaliyah),' or 'innocent (bari’ah),' or 'separated (ba’in),' and there was no mention of divorce or anger between them, he is to be believed. The implication of this is that he is not to be believed when those factors exist. This was narrated from Abu Hanifah, except regarding the four mentioned instances. The correct position is that he is to be believed, based on what Sa‘id narrated (17) with his chain of authority, that a man sought a woman in marriage from some people, and they said: 'We will not marry you to her until you divorce your wife.' He said: 'I have divorced her three times.' So they married her to him. Then he retained his wife, and they said: 'Did you not say you divorced her three times?' He said: 'Do you not know that I married so-and-so and divorced her (18), then married so-and-so and divorced her (19), then married so-and-so and divorced her (20)?' Uthman was asked about that, and he said: 'His intention is his own.' Furthermore, it is a matter [in which his intention is considered] (21), so his statement is accepted regarding what it can bear, just as if he were to repeat an expression and say: 'I intended to emphasize.'

1259 - Issue: (Abu Abd Allah said: If he says to her: 'You are released,' or 'You are innocent,' or 'You are separated,' or 'Your rope is on your withers,' or 'Go join your family,' it is in my view three [divorces], but (1) I dislike giving a formal legal opinion (fatwa) on it, regardless of whether he has consummated the marriage with her or has not.)