Fatwa ID: 05230

Answered by: Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Question

A wife is very angry with her husband and tells him to leave her. She says this in stupidity. She loves her husband a lot.                                                                                        

In situation 1. What if the husband says ‘ok’

In situation 2. If the husband says if you are happy like that, ok.

In situation 3. If the husband said anything like, I will leave you.

Does in the above 3 situations divorce take place?

What if both of them don’t remember what conversation took place. Nowhere in the conservation word ‘Talaq ‘or divorce or any intention of divorce from both sides. Husband says I didn’t have any intention of talaq.

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Answer:

If the wife mentions wordings of divorce such as “divorce me” or “give me a divorce”, and the husband replies with “okay”, divorce will not take place. Talaq will only take place if the wordings are said by the husband with a clear indication of divorce, such as if he replied, “Yes, I divorce you”.

However, if the wife asks the husband a question such as “am I divorced?”, and the husband replies “yes”, then one talaq raj’i (revocable divorce) will come into effect, (regardless of whether he had the intention or not). This is a clear statement of divorce as replying in the affirmative to the question implies, “yes, I have divorced you”, or “yes, you are divorced”.

If the husband uses a kinayah (ambiguous) statement of divorce, it will only come into effect if he had any intention of divorce. Hence, if he used words such as “I will leave you”, with no intention of divorce, it will not affect the marriage.

Only Allah knows best

Written by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Darul Ifta Birmingham