Chapter: Divorce by Calculation

1279 - Issue: He said: "And if he says to her: 'Half of you is divorced,' or 'your hand,' or 'a limb of your limbs is divorced,' or he says to her: 'You are divorced half a divorce,' or 'a quarter of a divorce,' one divorce occurs."

The discussion on this issue is in two sections:

The first is when he divorces a part of her. The second is when he divorces a part of a divorce.

As for the first, whenever he divorces a part of the woman's fixed parts, the whole of her becomes divorced, whether it is an undifferentiated part, such as half of her, or a sixth of her, or a part of a thousand parts of her, or a specific part, such as her hand, her head, or her finger. This is the opinion of al-Hasan, the school of al-Shafi'i, Abu Thawr, and Ibn al-Qasim, the companion of Malik. The Hanafis (Ashab al-Ra'y) held the view that if he attributes it to an undifferentiated part, or one of five limbs: the head, face, neck, back, or the private part, she becomes divorced. If he attributes it to a specific part other than these five, she does not become divorced, because it is a part without which the whole remains, or a part through which the whole is not represented, so the woman is not divorced by the attribution of divorce to it, such as a tooth or a fingernail. Our view is that he has attributed divorce to a fixed part, which he made lawful through the marriage contract, so it resembles an undifferentiated part and the five limbs. Furthermore, it is a whole that does not become divisible regarding lawfulness and prohibition; when a factor requiring prohibition or lawfulness is found in it, the ruling of prohibition prevails, just as if a Muslim and a Magian were to join in killing game. The analogy they made differs; for it is not a fixed part, and hair and nails are not fixed parts, as they disappear and are replaced, and touching them does not invalidate ritual purity.