Was what happened between the spouses a divorce or a khulʿ necessitating the return of the mahr, or neither this nor that, after the husband divorced his wife then took her back, then divorced her a second time at her request, then divorced her a third time at her request?

1. A woman is not permitted to seek divorce from her husband without a legitimate Shar'i (Islamic legal) reason.

2. Two divorces have definitively occurred: the first and the second. The fact that the husband did not intend for the second to occur does not prevent its occurrence.

3. Regarding the third divorce:

If the husband did not take back his wife after the second divorce, the more preponderant opinion is that it does not occur.

If the husband did take back his wife after the second divorce, and then divorced her a third time, it occurs by consensus.

4. What transpired is a divorce (طلاق) and not a khul' (mutually agreed divorce for compensation), because it was issued with the word "divorce" and was free of any compensation.