I would like to ask whether or not divorce (Talaq) will be effective in either of the following situations: during the menstruation period of the wife; and if the husband announce three divorces at once.
What is the Islamic way of giving a divorce?
Answer
The right way of giving a divorce (which in any case should be given after all other possibilities of reconciling have been tried), is to pronounce it formally when the wife is clean (and not in a menstrual period). After it is pronounced, the wife has still to be kept within the husband’s home. She has to spend three periods there. At the end of the third menstrual period, if the husband still feels that he wants to bid farewell to her, divorce would actualize on bidding her farewell. If at any stage before the waiting period is over, the husband reunites with his wife, no divorce would take place. However, this opportunity of reuniting after pronouncing divorce is available to the husbands only two times. If after availing the opportunity twice, he divorces his wife again, he will not be able to reunite again and at the end of the waiting period on the third occasion, she will have to depart. She can only get married to her former husband after that if she marries somebody else who then divorces her.
The above is the Quranic way of divorcing. Giving three “talaqs” in one sitting is against the Quranic way. If someone gives it, the law of the land should decide about it. My understanding is that the best way of dealing it is what Javed Ahmed Ghamidi Sahib does: He asks the husband to state on oath that by giving three Talaqs together, he didn’t want to part with his wife forever. If he gives that statement, the husband and wife should be allowed to live together.
However, since the majority of Muslims in Pakistan are following the Hanafi opinion, they consider Talaq binding after it has been pronounced thrice in one sitting.