Assalaamu alaykum. In an argument, I heard my husband whisper, "I divorce you," but a day later, when I asked him about that, he said that he did not intend to divorce so he did not complete the word 'talaq' (divorce) in his mouth. However, I heard him whisper the complete word, so I asked him again but he swore that he did not complete the word talaq. Later, when I asked him again, he said, "Yes, I said it, so now you are separated." Then he again said that he did not complete the word talaq and that he had told me and asked why I was asking about it again. My question is the following: when I asked him whether he had said talaq, he answered, "Yes, I said it, so now you are separated." Then, after saying that, he said, "I did not say it." Does divorce take place even if one did not complete the word talaq at that time, since one cannot lie in divorce because when I asked him again, he said, "Yes, I said it." I would appreciate your 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 your husband said these words, "I divorce you," then divorce does not take effect because it is considered a mere promise of divorce and such a promise does not count as a divorce that is officially effectuated, as highlighted in Fatwa 120269. The final say in this regard is your husband’s, whether he had intended to divorce you when he uttered those words or not. Hence, the basic principle is that your marriage is still intact until proven otherwise with certainty. For further information, please refer to Fataawa 30001 and 89370. You should not have insisted on asking him about the matter the way you did.

It seems that when your husband said to you afterwards "Yes I said it; so now you get separated", it was a reaction to your persistence, not that he had actually divorced you. Scholars stated that if a husband lied about divorcing his wife, divorce does not take effect as far as the marriage bond is concerned before Allaah. Hence, you are still his wife, and your marriage is still intact.

If your husband is suffering from obsessive whisperings, then you should know that even when such a person utters explicit words of divorce, divorce does not take effect; please refer to Fatwa 192771.

If the husband did not complete the words of divorce; as if he said, "You are div," and did not complete the word, then divorce does not take effect according to the opinion of some scholars because divorce takes effect only by uttering the explicit or implicit formulas of divorce. Some scholars, on the other hand, held that such a case falls under the category of using implicit words of divorce and the husband’s intention while uttering them is the criterion in deciding whether the divorce takes effect or not.

Allaah knows best.