He said "wife is divorce" if he went back to stock exchange
Fatwa No: 246310

Question

Salam...some 8 years ago i lost huge money in BET, was about to suicide luckily my brother came to know and came to rescue. during conversation he said i wld pay your debt but i doubt u might not go there again,,,,i was under great mental and physical stress cos of debt and the insult and cases..i didnt want my brother to leave if he has doubts so i said i promise i wont go to stockexchange if i go there then RUN TALAQ...(RUN IS WIFE)..TALAQ IS DIVORCE)....after a fortnight or so,,,same broher inspired me to invest some of his money there and then both will share the profit,,,,the day i went there i realised i vowwed not to,,,so i came back and touched 3 scholars,,,one said its just a vow so feed 60 poor,,,,,,,,other said if the word was TALAQ then one committed....third said its a vow and feed 60 poor ppl additionally third one said if by any means u dont feel satisfied u may consider it one divorce and not the three....after taken threee different advices,,,i calculated that 2 are in favour of KAFFARA (feeding 60 ppl.) and no divorce happened,,,,so i did not count any divorce of this event,,,,,,,after one year or so my wife accused me of something which i cldnt bear i pronounced her talaq and said i divorce u one talaq,and remeber now there are 2 left over......things went on smoothly for another 7 years during which at times i did reminded her that dont fuss only 2 remaining u already had one....this my wife also recalls correctly,,,,all was well since a week ago when i gave her second talaq,,,,,,and when doing so i did said this i divorce u and this is second one....and one left over,,,,if u do this aagain dont make me use the last one too....what i meant to say that during the years i and my wife always considered the first event as Vow and fed the 60 poors,,,and counted the other event as 1st aand 2nd divorce.....now what has all of sudden bothering me since yesterday that ,Was that a divorce too and has the relation between me and my wife ended.

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 is His slave and Messenger.

If you said, ‘If such and such takes place, then my wife is divorced,’ this statement has nothing to do with vows. This is known as conditional divorce; you had rendered your divorce on the condition of going to the stock exchange. Once you go to the stock exchange, the divorce is effected, according to the majority of Muslim jurists. Please refer to Fatwa 99468 about the different opinions of the scholars in this regard. Islamweb adopts the opinion of the majority of scholars.

On the other hand, it seems that your intention was to stop yourself from going to the stock exchange in order to avoid forbidden transactions such as bets. If this was the case, then there is no harm in going to the stock exchange in order to partake in lawful investments, and the divorce is not effected in this case. This is because scholars underlined that the reason that an oath of divorce is made affects the legal status of the oath as clarified in Fatwa 86123. Please refer also to Fatwa  85646 about the religious ruling on making bets on money.

The statement that you have uttered the last two times, ‘I divorce you,’ in the present tense is considered a promise of divorce. In this case, the divorce is not effective unless the husband intends divorce while uttering those words. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 92476.

Apparently, you intended to divorce your wife because you considered those two divorces to be effective.

We would like to point out that when a person makes a vow to perform an act of obedience to Allaah, it is incumbent on him to fulfill his vow in the exact manner he had vowed. If he makes a vow to commit a sin or a vow of Lajaaj (state of anger), he should offer expiation like that of breaking an oath. Fatwa 82135 explains the due expiation. Feeding sixty poor people is not an optional expiation for breaking a vow.

Allaah Knows best.

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