Taking Back (Raj'ah)

**Linguistic Definition:** One instance of returning. **Technical Definition:** Returning the divorced wife whose divorce is revocable (not final) to what she was before the divorce, without a new contract. --- **Legality:** The Quran, Sunnah, and Consensus indicate the legality of raj'ah. **From the Quran:** - Allah says: "And their husbands have more right to take them back in that period if they want reconciliation" [Al-Baqarah: 228] - Allah says: "And when you divorce women and they have reached their term, then retain them in kindness" [Al-Baqarah: 231] - meaning by taking them back. **From the Sunnah:** The hadith of Ibn Umar mentioned earlier, and the Prophet's ﷺ statement: "Command him to take her back." **Consensus:** Scholars have unanimously agreed that one who divorces less than three times has the right to take his wife back during the waiting period. --- **Wisdom:** The wisdom in raj'ah is giving the husband an opportunity if he regrets pronouncing the divorce and wants to resume marital life - he finds the door open before him. This is from Allah's mercy upon His servants and His kindness to them. --- **Six Conditions:** **1.** The divorce must be less than the number the husband possesses (three for a free man, two for a slave). If he completes the number, she is not lawful to him until she marries another husband. **2.** The divorced woman must have been consummated with, because raj'ah only occurs during the waiting period, and a woman not consummated with has no waiting period. - **Evidence:** Allah says: "O you who believe, when you marry believing women and then divorce them before you have touched them, then there is not for you any waiting period from them" [Al-Ahzab: 49] **3.** The divorce must be without compensation, because compensation in divorce was made for the woman to ransom herself from the husband, and she would not achieve that if he could take her back. **4.** The marriage must be valid; there is no raj'ah if he divorced in an invalid marriage. If the marriage is not valid, the divorce is not valid, and consequently raj'ah is not valid. **5.** The raj'ah must be during the waiting period. - **Evidence:** Allah says: "Their husbands have more right to take them back in that period" [Al-Baqarah: 228] - meaning during the waiting period. **6.** The raj'ah must be immediate, not conditional; so it is not valid if suspended, like saying: "If such-and-such happens, I have taken you back." --- **How is Raj'ah Accomplished?** **1.** By verbal statement, such as: "I have taken back my wife," "I have returned her," "I have restored her," "I have retained her," "I have taken her back." **2.** By having intercourse with the wife if he intends by that to take her back. --- **Rulings of Revocable Divorce:** **1.** A woman divorced revocably is still a wife as long as she is in her waiting period. She has what other wives have of maintenance, clothing, and housing, and upon her is what is upon them of staying in the home. She may adorn herself for him, he may be alone with her and have intercourse with her, and each inherits from the other. **2.** Raj'ah does not require the woman's consent or her guardian's consent. - **Evidence:** Allah says: "Their husbands have more right to take them back in that period if they want reconciliation" [Al-Baqarah: 228] **3.** The time for raj'ah ends with the end of the waiting period. She waits for three menstrual periods. If the revocably divorced woman becomes pure from the third menstrual period and her husband has not taken her back, she becomes irrevocably separated with a minor separation (bainunah sughra). She is not lawful to him except with a new contract with its conditions: guardian and two just witnesses. **4.** The revocably divorced woman, and the irrevocably divorced woman whom her husband remarries, return with what remains of the number of divorces. **5.** If he completes what he possesses of the number of divorces - divorcing her three times - she becomes prohibited to him and irrevocably separated with a major separation (bainunah kubra). She is not lawful to him until another husband has intercourse with her in a valid marriage.