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The ruling on ratifying words of divorce uttered by the wife

Question

My wife insisted on divorce in the presence of her family and I refused, but she threatened to take it to the court and she asked her family to be witness to that. She did not mention any reason for demanding a divorce, and what rather provoked me more was that none of her family interfered. Whereupon, I told her, “I grant you the right to divorce, so do as you wish.” My wife said, “Hence, I give myself a divorce.” I said, “And I divorce you.” However, when I said that I was repeating her words and ratifying that divorce and not making a new divorce i.e. second divorce. How many times did divorce occur?

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, is His Slave and Messenger.

Actually, according to your story, it is one divorce which your wife inflicted upon herself as you have given your wife the right to divorce. However, when you repeated the words of divorce as a means of ratification of that divorce, it was not regarded as a second divorce since you did not intend it to be one.

Allaah Knows best.

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