Sunan Ibn Majah
Sunan Ibn Majah 2047
حَدَّثَنَا أَبُو كُرَيْبٍ، حَدَّثَنَا هُشَيْمٌ، أَنْبَأَنَا عَامِرٌ الأَحْوَلُ، ح وَحَدَّثَنَا أَبُو كُرَيْبٍ، حَدَّثَنَا حَاتِمُ بْنُ إِسْمَاعِيلَ، عَنْ عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ بْنِ الْحَارِثِ، جَمِيعًا عَنْ عَمْرِو بْنِ شُعَيْبٍ، عَنْ أَبِيهِ، عَنْ جَدِّهِ، . أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ قَالَ " لاَ طَلاَقَ فِيمَا لاَ يَمْلِكُ " .
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Abu Kurayb narrated to us: Hushaim narrated to us: ʿAmir al-Ahwal informed us; and Abu Kurayb narrated to us: Hatim ibn Ismaʿil narrated to us, from ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn al-Harith. Both reported from ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb, from his father, from his grandfather, that the Messenger of Allah said: ‘There is no divorce regarding what one does not possess.’
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The legal maxim is translated literally; the object of possession is left unstated in the Arabic.
أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ قَالَ " لاَ طَلاَقَ فِيمَا لاَ يَمْلِكُ " .
The phrase فِيمَا لاَ يَمْلِكُ means ‘in what one does not possess,’ but does not name the object being possessed in this short report.
Should the maxim remain general, or should ‘a wife’ be supplied from its likely legal context?