permitting the exception of a half, so two divorces occur by it. If it is said: How did you permit the exception of two from three, when they are the majority? We say: Because he did not remain silent regarding them, but rather connected them by excepting one divorce from them, so it became equivalent to one [divorce]. If he says: 'You are divorced three times [except three] except two,' it is not valid; because the exception of two from three is not valid, as they are the majority, and the exception of three from three is not valid, because it is the entirety. If he says: 'Three except three except one,' it is not valid, and three [divorces] occur; because when he excepts one from three, two remain, and it is not valid to except them from the first three, so three occur. Abu al-Khattab mentioned another view from it, that it is valid; because the first exception is void due to being an exception of the entirety, so his statement 'except one' returns to the established three, and thus two divorces occur from it. The first [view] is better; because an exception from an affirmation is a negation, and from a negation it is an affirmation. Thus, when he excepts one divorce from the three negated ones, he is establishing it, so it is not permissible to count it as being from the established three, because it would be an affirmation from an affirmation. The exception is not valid in any of that except when joined to the speech, and it has been mentioned in the [chapter on] Admission. And Allah knows best.

1270 - Issue: He said: (And when he says to her: 'You are divorced in such-and-such month,' she is not divorced until the sun sets on the day that follows the specified month.)

The gist of this is that if he says: 'You are divorced' in a month he specified, such as the month of Ramadan, the divorce occurs at the first part of the first night of it, and that is when the sun sets on the last day of the month before it, which is the month of Sha'ban. This is what Abu Hanifa said. Abu Thawr said: The divorce occurs at the end of Ramadan; because that admits the possibility of its occurrence at its beginning and its end, so it does not occur except after the removal of the ambiguity. Our evidence is,