Sulaiman b. Yasar said he met over ten of the companions of God’s Messenger all of whom said that the one who swears to stay away from his wife must be made to return to her or divorce her at the end of the period.
‘Abdallah b. Mas'ud said that God’s Messenger cursed the man who made a woman lawful for her first husband and the one for whom she was made lawful.*
* This refers to an arrangement to marry a divorced woman and to divorce her after having intercourse so that the one who had divorced her might remarry her.
Darimi transmitted it, and Ibn Majah transmitted it on the authority of 'Ali Ibn ‘Abbas and ‘Uqba b. ‘Amir.
Abu Salama told that Sulaiman b. Sakhr, also called Salama b. Sakhr al-Bayadi, made his wife like his mother’s back* to him till the end of Ramadan, but when only half the month had gone he had inter-course with her during the night and went to God’s Messenger and mentioned that to him. He told him to set free a slave, but he replied that he could not get one; so he told him to fast two consecutive months, but he replied that he was unable to do that; he then told him to feed sixty poor people, but he replied that he did not possess the means, God’s Messenger then said to Farwa b. ‘Amr, “Give him that ‘araq (i.e., a date-basket holding fifteen or sixteen sa’s) (Cf. page 426) in order that he may feed sixty poor people.”
Tirmidhi transmitted it.
*I have retained the Arabic idiom in the translation. The phrase is said to have been used as a kind of divorce in pre-Islamic times, meaning that intercourse with the woman is being considered as intercourse with one’s mother.
‘A’isha told that the wife of Rifa'a al-Qurazi came to God's Messenger and said, “I was married to Rifa’a but he divorced me, making my divorce irrevocable. Afterwards I married ‘Abd ar-Rahman b. az- Zubair, but all he possesses is like the fringe of a garment.” He asked her whether she wanted to return to Rifa'a, but when she replied that she did, he said, “You may not until ‘Abd ar-Rahman and you have experienced the sweetness of intercourse with one another.”
