ASA Hope my e-mail finds you in best of everything by grace of Allah Pak. I am very upset regarding my problem and want you to help me. I was in nikkah with someone and the rukhsati had not taken place. Due to some reasons my parents refused to do my rukhsati and asked me to take divorce from my husband who lives in Karachi. I was told false stories about him and his character and I was not allowed to talk to him on phone as well.This means I had no contacts with him. My father and his friends threatened my husband and forced him to sign the divorce papers though he had no intentions to divorce me.My father threatened my husband that he will get his mother and brother killed if my husband will not sign the papers. So forcefully my husband signed the papers. He did not even uttered the talaq or divorce words three times. Now some people say that this divorce did not took place as my husband was forced to sign those papers that contained those divorce statement (3 times) and that too he did not said those words. Some people say that the divorce took place because he signed the papers. I am very upset. Please help me and answer my question. I shall pray to Allah Pak for you. DID/DID NOT THIS DIVORCE TOOK PLACE? Regards SM KHAN

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.

The divorce given under compulsion does not take place and we have already clarified this in Fatwa 85014 and explained the coercion that prevents divorce from taking place, like when a person is threatened that his wife or relatives will be harmed, and of course he will be harmed by them being harmed.

Therefore, if the situation is as you mentioned that your husband was threatened by your father that he will kill his mother and brother, and he predominantly thought that your father will carry out his threat, then this is a considerable coercion by which divorce does not take place.

On the other hand, writing the word divorce is considered among the metaphors of divorce, so divorce does not take place by writing it unless one is determined to initiate it by writing it. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 90056.

With reference to the above considerations, both of you are still considered as husband and wife, so if your husband wants to keep you, he may do so within reasonable terms and if he wishes to divorce you, he may do so as well. However, it might be that him divorcing you is better since the problems have reached this extent, especially that he did not consummate the marriage with you yet; this means that divorce now is easier than after the consummation of marriage.

Finally, it should be noted that it is not permissible for the parents to order their daughter to ask her husband for divorce without a sound reason and the daughter is not obligated to obey them in this regard. For more benefit on the limits of obedience to parents, please refer to Fatwa 84942.

Allaah Knows best.