as in the case of the general (al-'amm) when no specifier is found, and by the absolute (al-mutlaq) when no qualifier is found. As for a woman with whom the marriage has not been consummated, she is not divorced except by a single divorce, whether he intended initiation or otherwise, and whether he said that separately or consecutively. This is the opinion of Abu Bakr ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Harith, Ikrimah, al-Nakha'i, Hammad ibn Abi Sulayman, al-Hakam, al-Thawri, al-Shafi'i, the scholars of opinion (ashab al-ra'y), Abu Ubayd, and Ibn al-Mundhir. Al-Hakam narrated it from Ali, Zayd ibn Thabit, and Ibn Mas'ud. Malik, al-Awza'i, and al-Layth said: Two divorces take effect upon her, and if he said that three times, three divorces occur if it is consecutive, because he has pronounced three divorces in a consecutive statement, similar to his saying: "You are divorced three times." Our argument is that this is a separate divorce in the case of one with whom the marriage has not been consummated, so only the first one takes effect, as if he had separated his speech. Furthermore, a woman with whom the marriage has not been consummated becomes irrevocably divorced by one divorce, because there is no waiting period (iddah) upon her, so the second divorce encounters her as an irrevocably divorced woman (ba'in), and it is not possible for a divorce to take effect upon her, because she is no longer a wife, and only a wife can be divorced. Moreover, this is the view of those we have named from the Companions, and we do not know of any dissenter among them in their era, so it constitutes consensus (ijma').

Section: If he says, "You are divorced," then a long time passes, then he repeats that to a woman with whom the marriage has been consummated, she is divorced a second time, and his claim, "I intended emphasis," is not accepted, because emphasis is a subordinate to speech, and its condition is that it must be consecutive to it, like all other subordinates such as conjunction, description, and substitution.

Section: Every divorce that is ordered sequentially and comes one after another does not result in more than one divorce for a woman with whom the marriage has not been consummated, for the reason we have mentioned. Three divorces take effect for a woman with whom the marriage has been consummated if he initiates them, such as his saying: "You are divorced, then divorced, then divorced," or: "You are divorced, then divorced, then divorced," or: "You are divorced, then divorced and divorced," or: "...then divorced," and similar examples, because these are expressions that require sequence. Thus, the first one takes effect and makes her irrevocably divorced, then the second comes and encounters her as an irrevocably divorced woman who is no longer a wife, so no divorce takes effect through it. As for the one with whom the marriage has been consummated, the second one comes and finds the state of marriage intact, so it takes effect, and likewise the third.