Formats of divorce in Urdu
19-11-2016 | IslamWeb
Question:
Assalaamu alaykum, Sheikh. In pakistani culture, if the husband says, 'I divorce you', it would count as a divorce no matter what his intentions were. However, if a husband did not pronouce the word Talaaq (divorce) completely, like for example, he said 'Talaa' or 'Talq' (skipping the letter Alif) instead, would that still count as a divorce? If he says 'Main Tumien Tala Di' in the Urdu language, meaning, 'I give div (talaa) to You', would a divorce take place? In Urdu, the format of saying 'I divorce you' is like this: the word 'Talaq' comes in the middle of the sentence, before 'give'. And the format of pronouncing the divorce is like this: Main (I) Tumein (you), Talaq (divorce), and the word Di (give) comes in the end of the sentence. So the format for 'I divorce you' would be 'I you divorce give'. I am asking this because one Mufti (scholar who gives fatwa) said that even if the husband said 'tala' (instead of talaaq) with a complete sentance, like, 'I' and 'give you', the divorce will take place even if the husband did not pronounce the word 'divorce' completely. The Mufti said that even if the husband only said two or three letters of the word Talaaq, like 'ta la a' or 'ta la' or 'tal,q' (skipping the letter Alif) and completed the rest of the sentence, like by saying 'I' and 'give you', then not matter what his intentions were, the divorce will count, but if the husband only said 'I div' ('Talaa') or just 'div' itself without completing the sentence ('give you'), then divorce will not take place. Sheikh, is it right what the Mufti said, that the divorce would count even though the husband did not pronounce the word Talaaq completely, like by saying 'Talaa' because he completed the sentence from the beginning to the end, like by saying 'I' and 'give talaa to you' (in the Urdu format)? He just said 'Talaa' or 'Talq' (skipping the letter Alif) when he said the complete sentence, as has been mentioned above, instead of 'Talaaq', just to not say the word 'Talaaq' completely. This scholar who explained the ruling on te word 'Talaaq' to me is either from Ahle Hadith or a Salafi. Please, can you clarify the matter; I would appreciate that. Allaah bless you. Thank You.
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
First of all, we draw your attention to the fact that fatwas regarding such statements and whether divorce counts with them or not should be referred to trusted local scholars in your country because they are more knowledgeable of the customs and practices of the people there.
What is apparent - and Allah Knows best - is that the statement "I you divorce give" is the same as "I divorce you"; they are both in the present tense, which is not an explicit format of divorce, so divorce does not count with this format except if the husband's intention was to divorce. However, scholars explained that if the common practice of a community is to use this format to divorce or to intend an immediate divorce, then it is considered an explicit format of divorce and divorce counts without the husband's intention. The Hanafi scholar Ibn Nujaym said, "Divorce does not count in the present tense unless it is the common practice to use it to issue an immediate divorce, as is stated in Fat-h Al-Qadeer ... If the wife said to her husband, 'Divorce me,' and he responded, 'I divorce you,' (in the present tense), then divorce takes effect according to the scholars of Samarqand." For more benefit, please refer to fatwa 269398.
As for saying 'div' or the like without saying the word 'divorce' in full, the basic principle is that divorce does not count with it because it is not explicit; however, if it is common in a country that it is pronounced incompletely in this way, then this does not prevent divorce from taking effect. The common practice of the people is what is taken into consideration in this respect. Al-Qaraafi 
while addressing divorce with the words 'Taaliq' and 'Muntaliqah', wrote, "If there comes a time when the word 'muntaliqah' is commonly used to issue a divorce and the word 'taaliq' is no longer used to initiate divorce except rarely, then the word 'taaliq' does not make divorce count except with the intention (of the husband) while if he says 'muntaliqah', it counts as a divorce, contrary to the current situation in our present time." [Al-Furooq] So he made the word 'muntaliqah' count as a divorce in accordance with the common practice of the people although it is not a word of divorce in principle. For the same reason, he said that the word 'taaliq' does not count as a divorce although it is an explicit word of divorce in principle.
As for the format 'I divorce', it does not count as a divorce because it is not addressed to the woman (it does not include the pronoun 'you'). So saying "I div" does not count as a divorce with greater reason. Therefore, what this Mufti scholar said is correct.
Allah knows best.