Indirect expression of divorce is valid if the husband actually intends divorce thereby
6-7-2014 | IslamWeb
Question:
My fatwa 2500524 .brother mufti..should i go with which one?? ...shall i go with second one because i said it in present tense with no intention at all to let divorce happen even if she asked for divorce.. it just came out from my mouth. I did not initiate divorce at all, it was not conditional divorce . I did not mean divorcing her now or later .i just said it to finish the fight because she was very angry and went crazy.i wanted to calm her and to say ok iam giving you what you asked for .but my real intention not to let it valid .i love my wife and i want to live with her till i die.. in fatwa number 82330 that sentence you wrote really confused me "you are divorced thrice" just this expression i.e. without repeating the expression (I divorce you). ?? Does it mean the sentence i divorce you is valid in present tense?? Is the repeating of this sentence make it 3 divorces.. please brother mufti make it clear for me because when i read the fatwa of divorce in present tense is not valid i said ok mine is not valid..but when i read that one got really confused...thanks for your advice in advance
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, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and messenger.
The matter is as you have read in the first Fatwa, that expressing divorce in the present tense is not an explicit statement of divorce, and divorce does not take effect with such an expression unless the husband actually intends it, whether it was one divorce or three divorces (uttered at the same time). The second Fatwa which also contains the statement, ‘I divorce you’ does not mean that divorce takes place with this wording even if the husband had not intended it, as that could be on the basis that the husband intended divorce by uttering that statement. So, there is no contradiction between the two Fataawa.
Therefore, if the matter is as you have mentioned, i.e. you said to your wife: “I will give you what you are asking for”, in return for her asking for divorce, and you did not intend to divorce her by saying that, then the divorce did not take effect.
Therefore, your wife is still in marriage bond with you, so you should keep her as a wife and have kind and good marital relationship with her.
Finally, both spouses should avoid taking divorce as a solution for solving their marital problems; rather, they should have mutual affection and respect and tolerate the mistakes that may occur.
Allaah Knows best.