Questionable divorce

3-6-2014 | IslamWeb

Question:

I had been divorced last year from my husband on September 25 2013. He was not ready to take a separation and it was against his will. but he give a divorce under pressure of my families and me. Because we forced him to give a divorce. The divorce was with no reason, I was mentally upset and ask him to give me. He didn't said 3 divorces by spoken words, But he divorced me through divorce paper as divorce, divorce, divorce ( Talaak Salasa ). So is this divorce valid? Or we are still husband and wife! And is our relation halal to each other. After divorce I didn't went back to my husband house. And my iddat period was over in December 25 2013. After divorce he came to see me at night as I was crying and he said that he will take me back and hugged me in front of my mom and Allah. And after that we have seen 2,3 times again. And we talked on phone every single day. As I live in USA and he lives in Pakistan, after divorce I had to come back to USA as my father was not ok. And during my iddat time I didn't went back to Pakistan, but we were on phone everytime. On divorce paper they clearly said " we are giving the divorce because the girl is forcing us for divorce after every single time. So we are giving divorce divorce divorce "salasa talaak". Now I really want to go back to my husband without doing Halala. I asked many imam. Some says 3 divorces at one sittings consider 1. And I can go back to him. And some says no. And they even says that the divorces under pressure of the families doesn't consider a valid divorce. And they even says that if me and my husband met each other after divorce night and said that he will take me back and hugged me, that time too my divorce was finished. And we are legally husband and wife from that moment. He didn't wrote the divorce paper, he just signed it, and he thought that I have to sign it too, we were not prepared that we had a divorce from that time.

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.

If you have asked your husband for divorce for no valid or legitimate reason, you have committed a wrongdoing of which you should repent to Allaah. Please, refer to Fataawa 131953 and 86527.

Writing the words of divorce does not count as an effective divorce unless the husband holds the intention of divorce while writing them. The husband’s mere signature on the paper does not render the divorce as taking effect. This was underlined in Fatwa 87034.

According to the majority of Muslim jurists, pronouncing divorce thrice in one instance counts as three occurrences of divorce unless the husband intends merely to emphasize the first utterance of divorce (by means of the second and third repetitions). Shaykhul-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah  may  Allaah  have  mercy  upon  him adopted the opinion that pronouncing divorce three times in one instance counts as only one occurrence of divorce. Please, refer to Fatwa 94110.

It should be noted that giving divorce under moral pressure does not take effect unless the pressure reaches the Sharee'ah-considerable level of duress as underlined in Fataawa 117588 and 118112.

Revoking the divorce can be done by verbal statement or action; this issue is explained in detail in Fatwa 89845.

As you can easily notice, scholars maintained different opinions regarding these issues, and some of these issues require investigating the husband’s intention. Therefore, it is highly important to refer the case to Sharee'ah-court or consult reliable local scholars - via personal contact.

Allaah Knows best.

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