‘Abd Yazīd — the father of Rukānah and his siblings — divorced Umm Rukānah and married a woman from Muzaynah. So the new wife came to the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) and said: He does not satisfy me except like this hair does

Explanation

‘Abd Yazīd, the father of Rukānah and his siblings, divorced the mother of Rukānah and married a woman from Muzaynah. This woman came to the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) and said that Abu Rukānah was impotent, so he could not have sexual intercourse with her, and asked for separation. The Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) became angry on that account and called Rukānah and his siblings and said to those who were sitting with him whether they recognized similarity in features between Rukānah and his siblings and their father, concluding that they were the children of ‘Abd Yazīd, and thus ‘Abd Yazīd was not impotent, as his new wife from Muzaynah claimed. As people recognized a similarity, the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) asked ‘Abd Yazīd to divorce the woman, and he did so. Then he asked him to restore his ex-wife, the mother of Rukānah and his siblings. ‘Abd Yazīd said that he had divorced her three times in one session. The Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said that he knew that and remarked that three utterances of divorce in one session are considered one divorce. He recited: {O Prophet, when you [Muslims] divorce women, divorce them for [the commencement of] their waiting period and keep count of the waiting period} [Sūrat At-Talāq: 1]. So ‘Abd Yazīd restored his ex-wife. According to a narration of Ahmad: Abu Rukānah divorced his wife three times in one session and regretted what he did. So the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) told him that they counted as one divorce only.

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