Dear Mufti Saab one time i said a statemnet that i thought affected my marriage so i decided to do ruju to my wife,by saying if i said anything that affected our marriage i take you back as my wife" . . At the time i cant remember why i thought it was dvorce maybe it was my own research or an answer from an online ask imam website, because i remember the 1st reply said that what i said did affect my marraige but the website did not tell me who was answering the question and it doesnt make sense to me now and seems incorrect answer i cant remember if i recieved that answer before or after i made ruju as this was 2 years ago, so maybe i made ruju just after doing my own research Anyway afterward I learned from all the other online scholar and everywhere else i have have told me it that it didnt constitute dvorce in the first place. and now i think i didnt commit dvorce so what i want to ask is because of the fact that i thought i commited dvorce and made ruju did dvorce take place. or does that ruju not mean anything JazakALLAH

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.

First of all, you should know that if the marriage bond is confirmed with certainty, then it cannot be nullified by being in doubt about divorce. We have already clarified this in Fatwa 164315, so please refer to it.

A layman Muslim should ask the scholars if he is afflicted with something that requires asking them, pursuant to the saying of Allaah (which means): {…so ask the people of the message [i.e. former scriptures] if you do not know.}[Quran 16:43]

Such a person should look for someone whom he trusts among the scholars [in regard to his knowledge and righteousness] and he should then act according to his Fatwa. However, he is not permitted to move from one Mufti (a scholar who is qualified to give rulings) to another except for a sound reason.

Therefore, if you ignored that Fatwa because you did not know about the situation of the person who issued it to you, and you did not know about his knowledge and religion, or that you predominantly thought that he was not suitable for issuing Fataawa, then it is permissible for you to move to another person whom you trust and to act according to his Fatwa and consider that divorce had not taken place.

As regards your statement “…because of the fact that I thought I committed divorce and made Ruju’ …”, and according to what you mention, you did not consider that divorce had taken place since you conditioned taking back your wife on the occurrence of divorce. Hence, this conditioning is evidence that you were not certain that divorce had taken place. If this is the case, then, in our view, you should not take heed to these doubts as this may lead you to whispers that could have unpleasant consequences. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 119544.

Allaah Knows best.