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Fatwa CenterSeperated couple to avoid tax and gain profits
Question
1) What (Hokum) if a man say that he is separated from his wife while he knows he is not but he is doing that to avoids paying rent tax and so on. 2) All this is in agreement between two of them husband and wife it means they lie to receive house benefit and other benefits. 3) Is their marriage still valid or not valid also they are going to prove all this to a lawyer to get a paper work to show that they are separate while living together? Whenever they go to hospital or anywhere else the woman will say "I am single" and man will say "I am single". If they give statement to any one they say I am not married, single or separated with my wife or husband. Please would you give me the right of separation in Islam and if is wrong to do so is it the marriage still valid?
Answer
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions. What you inquired about is unlawful in Shariah as it is not only a lie, but also a belittlement and a depreciation of marriage and divorce. Indeed, marriage and divorce are among the limits set by Allah which are meant by this verse: Allah Says (interpretation of meaning): {…And treat not the Verses (Laws) of Allâh as a jest,…}[2:231]. This interpretation is done by al-Tabari and others. As for the question "does the divorce become effective or not?" If the person expressed divorce using divorce words, intending divorce or not, or if he writes divorce with the intention of divorce, then in both cases divorce is effective. The Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) said: Three things if done with seriousness are serious and if done jokingly are serious (as well): marriage, divorce and Rija'a (returning ones wife to wedlock after divorcing her a first or second divorce before her Iddah expires). [ al-Tirmizi and Abu Dawood ] al-Khattab said that All the scholars of Islam are agreed that if the sane, rational, pubescent man says the words of divorce explicitly to his wife then he is held accountable for it (divorce). And saying that he was joking or he did not intend divorce does not change the rule. So, the divorce is effective. But if the husband says that he was not married using metonymy this does not make the divorce effective unless he intended divorce. If he only intended to inform using a lie, then this is a lie not a divorce. But using expressions like: "I separated from my wife" is considered by some scholars as explicit divorce which does not require any intention. Other scholars believe that it is only metonymy and divorce does not become effective unless the husband intended it. Allah knows best.
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