i been married 20yrs and from day one i noticed that my wife was not happy from this marriage. she was already twice divorced. all this time her behaviour has been uncooprative and once she also confessed and said " i have nothing to do with you and you have nothing to do with me. many time i noticed that she expressed dislikeness or or as she dont love mei tried to go on hoping the things will get better but instead i got psychological effects and needed councilling.in short i was unable to work and lost all the confidence. having a very turbulant life with her i decided to conclude the matter and asked my wife to give me concent to divorce as according to UK law i cant marry but she refused and threatened to oppose it in the court. I dont want to give her islamic talaq for the sake of my children. my question is that if i go to court and get the divorce will she be also divirced islamically as talaq or one also has to give islamic talaq. i am suffering and want to get marry without giving her talaq. but without legal divorce it is not possible. please let me know what can i do islamically. in the event of court divorce will she still be in my nikah or not because my intention is to have another wife but obstacle is english law.

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.

Divorce does not take place just because the court issues it, indeed a Fatwa from the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America was issued in this regard, and the Fatwa reads: “If a husband divorces his wife Islamically, it is permissible to authenticate it before courts run by man-made laws, but resorting to non-Islamic courts in order to terminate the marriage according to the man-made laws does not lead by itself to the end of the marriage Islamically.”

Therefore, the wife does not become out of the bond of marriage with her husband just because these non-Islamic courts ruled divorce unless the husband uttered the word divorce or wrote it while having the intention of divorce as we clarified in Fatwa 90056.

However, this does not mean that you have the right to leave your wife hanging, in the sense that she is divorced legally but not divorced Islamically; rather, if you do not divorce her, you are obligated to fulfill her rights, like spending on her and having good marital relationships with her and the like, whether or not you marry another wife. For more benefit on the rights between the spouses, please refer to Fataawa 85308 and 83157.

Nonetheless, it should be noted that such (legal) divorces that are issued by official institutions, may lead to some disadvantages, among which is, for instance, if your wife dies, you do not inherit anything from her because according to the authorities you are not her husband, and if you die as well, she will not inherit you as you are not considered her husband according to the law.

Also, if you have children with her, after the court divorce, they will not be traced back to you legally as you are not their mother's husband according to the law.

In any case, it such a situation the best thing is to act according to the saying of Allaah (which means): {…either keep [her] in an acceptable manner or release [her] with good treatment.} [Quran 2:229] By doing so, it might be that Allaah will reconcile between you and your wife, so ask Allaah to guide and rectify her.

Allaah Knows best.