Abd Yazid—Abu Rukanah and his brothers—divorced Umm Rukanah and married a woman from Muzaynah. She came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and said, "He is of no use to me except as much as this hair is useful,"—for a hair she had taken from her head—"so separate me from him." A feeling of protective jealousy came over the Prophet (ﷺ), so he called Rukanah and his brothers, then said to those sitting with him, "Do you see that such-and-such resembles him in such-and-such aspects from Abd Yazid, and that such-and-such resembles him in such-and-such aspects?" They replied, "Yes." The Prophet (ﷺ) said to Abd Yazid, "Divorce her." He did so. Then he said, "Take your wife back, Umm Rukanah and his brothers." He said, "O Messenger of Allah, I have divorced her thrice." He said, "I already know, take her back." And he recited:
O Prophet, when you divorce women, divorce them for their prescribed period.
Abu Dawud said: The tradition of Nafi ibn Ujayr and Abdullah ibn Ali ibn Yazid ibn Rukanah, from his father, on the authority of his grandfather, that Rukanah divorced his wife irrevocably (al-battah) and the Prophet (ﷺ) returned her to him, is sounder. This is because a man's offspring and family are most knowledgeable about him: Rukanah only divorced his wife irrevocably, and the Prophet (ﷺ) made it a single divorce.