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Fatwa CenterDivorcing a twice-divorced wife after her waiting period
Question
Salaam brothers, I have two quick questions in relation to divorce in Islam. 1. If a man pronounces third divorce on a woman who has been divorced twice previously and her second divorce iddah period is ALREADY expired (so she is no longer his wife as he did not take her back within iddah) than is this third divorce pronouncement counted against him or has no effect as she is no longer his wife at the time third divorce was pronounced? Are they allowed to re-marry with a new marriage contract if the third pronouncement not counted in this particular case? 2. If a male is repeating statements of divorce (related to a divorce incident that already took place in past and he is NOT intending any new divorce) to himself or repeating them to a family member in order to analyze whether those statements caused divorce or not then will such statements cause any additional divorce?? He was merely saying them to remember what happened in past as there are doubts and he did not intend any further new divorces by repeating these statements. Jazzak Allah.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.
If a man marries a woman through a correct marriage and consummates the marriage with her, then he is allowed to divorce her three times (three divorces). Therefore, if he divorces her once or twice, he may take her back as long as she is in her waiting period whether or not she agrees to it. However, if he does not take her back within her waiting period, then she is divorced a revocable divorce and she is not lawful to him again unless he conducts a new marriage contract with her. There is a consensus among the scholars 
on this issue.
For instance, Ibn Al-Munthir 
said: 'The scholars agreed in a consensus that a husband may take his wife back as long as she is in her waiting period, but when her waiting period finishes, then he may propose to marry her as any other man does.'
Subsequently, if the waiting period of the woman about whom you are asking has expired after the second divorce and before he took her back, then she became like any other woman with whom one has no marital relation. Therefore, if after this, he pronounced divorce to her again, divorce is not valid because there is no relevance since she is no longer his wife, and this third divorce is of no effect. Divorce takes place between a married couple or in the case of a woman who is divorced a revocable divorce and is still in her waiting period. In this case, that man may marry her again with a new marriage contract and a new dowry.
As for the repetition of the utterance of divorce; if the situation is as you described in the question, then divorce does not take effect because the person only intended to inform other people about it, or ask [about its ruling] or just report what happened but he did not intend to initiate a new divorce.
Allaah Knows best.
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