DEAR MASSI, If a husband divorces his wife by uttering the words 'Talaq' three times, I have heard that the wife must marry another man and then divorce him before she can live with her first husband again.

Is this true and if so are there any reasons for this?

Do witnesses have to be present when the man decides to divorce his wife? I have been told that husband and wife have three months in which they can get back together after their divorce. If this is the case does the woman still have to marry another before she can return to her husband. Please could you clarify this issue.

PG Preston

If a husband give his wife one talak, he may take her back before the three months have expired after her first period (iddat), with her mutual consent.

If he utters two talaks, then to take her back, he must formalise it with a nikah ceremony. If he utters three talaks (this is considered as unnecessary cruelty), then the divorce is irrevocable and after the completion of the iddat, the woman may marry whomever she pleases, except her ex-husband. Once she has remarried, if the new husband divorces her of his own will, without it being a condition of the marriage or cooercion, then she may remarry her first husband. The reason for all these clauses is for the protection of and with the best intentions for the woman, so that a man cannot hold her in wedlock indefinately and so that people do not trivialise such a serious and heavy consequential thing as divorce.

Response by Maulana Nasrullah Anwar (Project Manager, LCM)