A drunken husband divorcing his wife via SMS
Fatwa No: 123499

Question

assalamallaikum
I have three children and love my husband too much though he has bad habits.
My husband while drunk sent me on sms "Anti Taliq forever" . He was drunk at that time . This is the third time . But he insists that he had put the condition that if I travelled on a particular date. But I didn't receive this condition. Neither did he tell my family members. But he insists that it was in his mind and Niyat and insists that he hasn't divorce me. What should I do?
Please help soon.
Wa'salam

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 is His slave and Messenger.

 

The jurists differed in opinion in regard to the ruling on the divorce of a drunken person; the majority of them are of the view that it takes place. However, some of them are of the view that divorce does not take place if the drunken person reaches a state when he is not conscious of what he says; this is the most preponderant opinion. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 84992.

However, even if we presume that divorce took place, then if your husband claims that he conditioned divorce on you travelling at a specific period of time, then it is his statement that should be taken into account. If what he conditioned divorce on did not take place, then divorce did not take place.

However, we advise you to admonish this husband and remind him of Allaah about the bad habits that he does which you mentioned in the question, among which is him consuming intoxicants, because this is one of the grave major sins.

Finally, it should be mentioned that writing the word divorce is one of the metaphors of divorce and divorce does not take place with it except with intention, as clarified in Fataawa 89894 and 87034.

Allaah Knows best.

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