Knowing whether you have been divorced two or three times depends on the intention of the husband
Fatwa No: 482119

Question

Asalam alaykum,Please can I enquire about a divorce Fatwa.In January 2023 I was roughly 6 months pregnant and in an argument my husband said, “I divorce you, I divorce you”. Then we reconciled and a month later he said, “I divorce you” only once. Since then, we have been separated and I have now had my baby and she is now 5 months old. Recently my husband has shown interest in reconciling, and I wanted to ask is this still possible?Please can you guide me? Some say I have been divorced 3 times and some say I have been divorced 2 times? And is there a way that me and husband can get back together? Is a new Nikah with new mahr still an option as my iddah has finished? What would have been the correct view from our Prophet (pbuh)'s perspective?I am confused.

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

When your husband says to you, ‘You are divorced, you are divorced,’ according to the majority of scholars, this constitutes two divorces, unless your husband intended the second statement as a confirmation of the first. If the intention was confirmation, then it counts as one divorce. Some scholars, however, are of the view that it constitutes one divorce in any case.

And his saying to you after that, ‘You are divorced,’ then this constitutes one divorce. According to the view of the majority of the scholars, which we adopt in our fatwas, if he did not intend confirmation with the second statement when he said, ‘You are divorced, you are divorced,’ then this would be the third divorce, in which case, you would be permanently forbidden to him, and your return to him (through remarriage) would not be permissible until you marry someone else. According to another view, this would be the second divorce, and based on that, your return to him is permissible.

Since there is a need to know your husband's intention behind his repetition of divorce, and given the existence of differences in some matters, we advise that your husband consult one of the Islamic centers.

We draw your attention to two matters:

First: Divorcing a pregnant woman is in accordance with the Sunnah and is not an innovative (bid'ah) form of divorce.

Second: Caution should be exercised to avoid making divorce a means to resolve issues that may arise in marital life. It is important for the couple to strive to avoid problems and to seek wisdom in resolving them.

Allah knows best.

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