Repetition of divorce in present tense
14-5-2016 | IslamWeb
Question:
Shaykh, I sent a query, but you referred to other fatwas. I wanted to ask about two different things, Shaykh. Three years ago, in an argument, I asked my husband for a divorce. He said, Since I thought that he had to say it three times, I said, “Say it, why did you stop?” Then again said, “I divorce you,” twice. Then I started crying. After some time, he hugged me and said that he did not want to leave me. Then my father and he went to a scholar, who said that it was an irrevocable divorce. He cried and told me that he only said it again because I asked him too and that since I was asking for it, he had to give it to me and then later we could get married again if I wanted too. (At the time, we did not know much about divorce.) So we cried, thinking that we were divorced. Then I told him that I thought that Dr. Zakir Naik (IRS) says something else, so we called IRS. Since we also did not know how important some scholar's fatwa is, I did not tell the scholar at IRS that we already asked another scholar who ruled it to be an irrevocable divorce, and I just told scholar at IRS that my husband gave me three divorces (but without explaining to the scholar how my husband said it, like, first he pronounced one divorce and when I asked him to give more then he again said, “I divorce you,” twice.) I mean, I just told the scholar that my husband said pronounced the divorce three times. Then the scholar asked him what his intention was. My husband said he that did not intend to leave me but just repeated it. The scholar said that it is only one divorce. Shaykh, my 2 queries are:
1) I am confused; was it permissible for us to ask another scholar even though we had already had gotten a fatwa?
2) Was it one, two, or three divorces, because he first pronounced it only once and then when I asked him to give me more, he pronounced two more? Shaykh, he swears by Allaah that he just said it because I told him to say it but that he did not give me a complete divorce after which we cannot get back together. Later, after this incident, one more divorce took place because he thought that the above divorce is only counted as one.
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.
First of all, it should be mentioned that moving from one mufti to another for a correct purpose, and not just in order to seek concessions and the like, is Islamically permissible.
Ibn al-Qayyim 
said:
“A person seeking a fatwa should not think that the mere fatwa of a jurist permits him to do what he asked for if he knows that the matter is otherwise in reality, (this is so) regardless of whether he felt hesitation or doubt in his heart because he knows about the fact inwardly; or doubts about it; or ignores it; or because he knows that the mufti is ignorant, that the latter was favoring him in his fatwa, or that he was not sticking to the Quran or the Sunnah; or because that mufti is known for his tricks and concessions that contradict the Sunnah; and because of other reasons that prevent trustworthiness or feeling content with his fataawa. So if a person does not feel confident about a mufti, and he does not feel content with his fatwa, then he may ask again and again until he feels content.” [End of quote]
If a layman asks for a fatwa from the mufti whom he trusts, and he acted upon his fatwa, then he cannot withdraw from his fatwa and act upon another fatwa about the same issue.
Al-Buhooti, from the Hanbali School of Fiqh, said in Kash-shaaf al-Qinaa’, “If a person asks one mufti, then he should act according to his view … the author of Sharh At-Tahreer said, 'If a layman asks one mufti and acted upon his fatwa, then he is definitely bound to follow that fatwa, and he is not permitted to move to the fatwa of another in that particular incident according to the consensus of the scholars. This was quoted by Ibn Haajib, Al-Hindi, and others.”
If the situation is as you mentioned, that your husband said to you, “I divorce you,” in the present tense, then this is only a promise of divorce and not a divorce, unless your husband had intended to make it an effective divorce on the spot or if according to the local custom divorce is effective with that expression on the spot; as we have already pointed out in fatwa 269398.
If we presume that there was an intention of divorce or that the custom in your country is to consider that as an effective divorce, then if your husband intended to emphasize the first divorce by repeating it and he did not intend to initiate a new divorce, then it is only one divorce that took place. If he intended to initiate a new divorce each time he said it, then three divorces have taken place. For more benefit, please refer to fatwa 200411.
The fact that he repeated instances of divorce based on your request does not prevent it from being effective. What should be taken into account is the intention of your husband because the divorce is in his hands, and not in the hands of the wife. Ibn Abbaas 
narrated that the Prophet said, "Divorce belongs to the one who takes hold of the calf (i.e. the husband)." [Ibn Maajah - Al-Albaani graded it hasan (good)]
Allaah knows best.