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Divorcing the wife before the consummation of marriage

Question

i did nikkah to widow and gave her three talaqs one by one due to some unfavorable conditions before having intercourse with her however i had sex to some extent with her. can i remarry to her

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) is His slave and messenger.

If you had pronounced divorce to your wife in a single statement, such as if you said to her: “you are divorced three times”, then the divorce has taken effect three times according to the view of the Four Schools of jurisprudence. In this case, you are not entitled to take her back until she marries another man out of true desire and then he consummates the marriage with her, and then divorces her [or dies].

On the other hand, if you divorced her with repetitive statements such as saying: ‘you are divorced’ ‘you are divorced’ ‘you are divorced’; then the majority of the jurists are of the view that the divorce takes effect only once and the second and third divorce are of no effect as your wife would have been divorced by the first time you pronounced the formula of divorce. For more information, please refer to Fatwa 10366.

In this second case, it is permissible for you to take your wife back again with a new contract and a new dowry.

For more information on the types of divorce, please refer to Fatwa 82541.

In any case, since there are possibilities in the issue, and the matter may require asking you some questions in order to know what your intention was, then it is more appropriate to refer the case to an Islamic court or to ask a scholar orally in your country.

Allaah Knows best.

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