We, the community of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), used to consider the exception (al-istithna') valid in everything except in the manumission of a slave (al-'ataq) and divorce (al-talaq). Abu al-Khattab mentioned this. This is a transmission of consensus, and if it is assumed to be the view of some of them and it became widespread without anyone known to oppose it, then it is consensus. This is because it is an exception that lifts the entire divorce, so it is not valid, like his saying: 'You are divorced three times, except for three.' Furthermore, it is an exception of a ruling in a subject, so it is not lifted by the will, like sale and marriage. It is also an elimination of ownership, so it is not valid to suspend it upon the will of Allah, just as if he said: 'I absolve you [of the marriage] if Allah wills,' or if it is a suspension upon something that there is no way to know, so it resembles its suspension upon impossibilities. The hadith contains no evidence for them; for divorce and manumission are acts of initiation (insha'), and they are not oaths in reality, and if they are named as such, it is metaphorical, and the reality is not abandoned [for its sake] (105). Furthermore, divorce is only called an oath if it is suspended upon a condition that can be abandoned or performed. The mere utterance of his saying 'You are divorced' is not an oath in reality or metaphorically, so the exception after an oath is not possible (106). Regarding their saying: 'He suspended it upon a will that is not known,' we say: The will of Allah for divorce has indeed been known through the human being performing its cause. Qatadah said: 'Allah has willed it when He permitted him to divorce.' Even if we concede that it was not known (107), he has nevertheless suspended it upon a condition whose knowledge is impossible, so it becomes like its suspension upon impossibilities; it is nullified (108), and the divorce takes effect immediately.

Section: If he says: 'You are divorced if you enter the house, if Allah wills,' there are two reports from Ahmad regarding this. One of them is that the divorce takes effect upon entering the house, and the exception does not benefit him; because divorce and manumission are not...