Fatwa ID: 04396
Answered by: Maulana Muhammad Afzal Hussain
Question:
We are married since 2009 and have two daughters and two sons. One day, due to a hot exchange of verbal abuse, my anger increased to an extreme. In this state, I tried to search my elder brother's name to tell him about the insulting and abusing of my wife but forgot the first character of his name so failed.
In frustration, I then tried to search my wife's brother's name to tell him about all that but failed again (because my mind partially defected and it failed to perform its normal functioning). In this state, further mutual abusing raised my anger to the greatest extreme, and all of a sudden, without any intention, the words of divorce uncontrollably uttered from my mouth three times.
I swear before Allah that I had no intention/plan/will of giving divorce even a micro-second before uttering those words, and had no knowledge about the implication of those words at the moment of uttering them. It is only after a few minutes later when I realized what words I had uttered and what are their implications. Now, we both are very deeply frustrated. Kindly, guide us on whether Islam considers divorce effective or not if it is uncontrollably and unintentionally given in such a partially defective state of mind?
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيْم
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Answer:
You mentioned: 1/ Your anger raised to the greatest extreme. 2/ You had no knowledge about the implication of those words at the moment of uttering them. 3/ Divorce is given in a partially defective state of mind.
Scholars said: Extreme anger to the point of insanity (junun), in that one is unaware where one is, what one is saying, what are the implications of these words, etc. In such a case, divorce will not come into effect. [See: Radd Al-Muhtar]
Aisha narrated that the Prophet said: “There is no divorce and no manumission in the event of ighlaaq.”[Ibn Majah: 2046, Abu-Dawood: 2193] Some of the scholars said that 'ighlaaq' means anger, i.e., intense anger. For his anger made him unaware of what he was saying.
Therefore, In your case, divorce will not occur.
Only Allah knows best
Written by Maulana Muhammad Afzal Hussain
Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah
Darul Ifta Birmingham
