Fatwa ID: 02196

Answered by Molana Eunus Ali

Question:

I need an urgent assistance from you. Please help me in this regard.

My wife sister said to my wife that my mother has devil eyes and my wife also agreed with her in this sentence. I read her mobile messages without her permission, and for information we both are frank with each other that we use each other belongings without permission. I ate 30 mg sleeping pills due to anger that how can my wife agrees her or even listen to these evil words as I love my wife a lot, (Something else also happened apart of this) and in this anger state (Keeping in mind that I was not in my senses at that moment) I said to me wife "If u talk to your sister anymore then my relationship with you will be end". As she loves her family/sister more than me or our relationship, I knew that whatever happens she will talk. To cut the long story short, she talked to her sister afterwards. So, please clear me what are the Islamic ruling on this? Furthermore, still she has no guilt that she did wrong, in fact blaming me again and again that how can I touch her cellphone? It means that I am wrong that I used her cellphone, and she is right as every sister used to talks bad things against their husband’s family

Answer:

There are two types of divorce in Islam:

1. Sareeh: This is when the husband explicitly and clearly issues his wife a divorce and there is no possibility of the statement having an alternative meaning.A revocable divorce (talaq-e-raji) will take place. This means that after the issuing of such divorce the wife will begin her waiting period immediately. If during the waiting period the couple decide to reconcile the marriage they may do so without repeating the nikah (marriage ceremony).

If however the waiting period (three menstrual cycles) has come to an end and the couple then decide to reconcile, the nikah (marriage ceremony) will have to be repeated along with its conditions etc.

An example of this type of divorce is that the husband says to the wife ‘you are divorced’ or ‘I issue you a talaq’ etc.

In this category the intention of the husband will not be taken into consideration. [1]

2. Kinayah: This is when the husband uses unclear phrases or words accompanied with the intention of talaq are used to issue a divorce to the wife. A divorce absolute (talaq-e-bain) will occur as a result of this which means the couple will not be allowed to reconcile the marriage without performing the nikah again with its conditions (such as having witnesses etc.).

When the talaq is implicit and not clear, the intention of the husband will be taken into consideration.[2]

Conclusion: as the phrase "If u talk to your sister anymore then my relationship with you will be end"is not a clear divorce and therefore your intention will need to be looked at.

If your intention by saying the above was to in fact issue a divorce if she spoke to her sister, the divorce will be issued when the condition of speaking to the sister is found[3] and to reconcile the marriage the nikah will need to be performed again.

However if your intention was not to issue a divorce by saying the above rather to scare her or anything else, there will be no divorce issued when she spoke to her sister.

Only Allah knows best

Written by Molana Eunus Ali

Darul Ifta Birmingham.

Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah