The Opinion of Islamic Denominations about Mitlaq (The Divorcer)

In narratives quoted by holy prophet (pbuh) and the Imams (pbut), divorce is considered as a hateful subject and those who divorce their wives with no sufficient reasons are seriously criticized. Several narratives in Shiite or Sunnite texts and many other references suggest Imam Hassan (pbuh) as a Mitlaq (The Divorcer) who had gotten married with several women but divorced them consequently without any specific reasons. Such narratives are in conflict not only with the narratives which call him the chief of the youth of Eden, but also with his highly religious rank and adorable piety. A close investigation through Sunni narratives indicates that being Mitlaq has never been mentioned in any of the six main Sunni books and there are only two narratives in this regard in Musnnaf Ibn Abi Shaybah, the narrator of one of which is accused of negligence and hallucination. On the other hand, though there seems to be a rather large number of such narratives among Shia narratives, they can’t be counted on due to their anonymous and weak narrators or the undependability of the documents. Not only are the accounts narrated in history books written with a large temporal distance from the life time of Imam Hassan (pbuh), but also due to discontinuity of the document, narrator’s weakness and other such deficiencies none of them can be relied on. Therefore, it can be concluded that with regard to the accurate narratives regarding commitment of Imam Hassan (pbuh) to religious commands and his avoidance of illegitimacy or even Makruhat on the one hand, and the inaccuracy of the narratives regarding his being Mitlaq on the other, attributing being Mitlaq to Imam Hassan (pbuh) contradicts the reality and, though noted, has no scientific basis.