“Divorce can be pronounced twice: then, either honourable retention or kindly release should follow.” (Al Quran – 2:229)
This ayah aims at the reform of a serious evil that was rampant in the social life in pre-Islamic Arabia. According to the customary law of Arabia, a person was entitled to pronounce any number of divorces upon his wife. As a result divorce was resorted to at the least provocation and annoyance. In addition, the husband often exercised his right to revoke the divorce he had pronounced with the result that the poor wife could neither live with him in happiness nor free herself to contract a fresh marriage with someone else. Here the Qur’an seeks to shut the door on this injustice. According to this ayah, a man may pronounce revocable divorce upon his wife not more than twice. Should he pronounce divorce for the third time after revoking it twice, the wife will be permanently alienated from him.
The appropriate procedure for divorce, according to the Qur’an and Hadith, is that a person should pronounce one divorce outside the time of the wife’s menstrual period. After the first divorce he may pronounce a second in the next clear period if he wants to, though it is preferable that he should confine himself to pronouncing the first. In this case the husband retains the right to revoke the divorce at any time before the lapse of the period of waiting (‘iddah); even if the period of waiting has lapsed, the couple have the right to re-contract the marriage by mutual consent.