Conditional divorce

17-12-2002 | IslamWeb

Question:

Last Wednesday I asked my husband that I want to go to my mother's house alone since it got late for him to come with me he goes to work early. He told me "If I leave I will be divorced on him" He said it once. I didn't go I sat down. Then after a couple of minutes he said "Now if you don't come with me to your mother's house you will be Divorced on me". So after two days I came to my father's house. What should I do? Should I do another Nikah? One Imam said I can't get close to him for 45 days. Is that true? Please give me a solution to this.

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Answer:

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.

Your husband's saying: "You will be divorced" and his saying: "If you do not accompany me you will be divorced" depend on his intention. If he meant threatening to divorce before actually mentioning it sometimes in the future, then what happened is not a divorce and it is not counted as anything.
But if he meant what he said, i.e. that divorce will be effective as soon as you do what he told you not to do or that you refuse to do what he wanted you to do. Then, if it is the first divorce or the second one, it is lawful to him to return you as his wife as long as you are in your Iddah and without a new marriage contract. But if your Iddah expires you cannot return to him except with a new marriage contract and Mahr (bridal money). But if this is the third time he divorces you, then you cannot return to him as his wife unless you marry another man and this man has intercourse with you. Only then could your first husband return to you after the expiry of your Iddah from the marriage, with the second man.
On the other hand, if he intended by his telling you not to go to your mother's home a particular time and you happen to go there after that period, then the divorce is ineffective. But if he meant that you never go to your mother's house anytime in the future, then whenever you go you are divorced. Finally, what this Imam told you has no evidence in Sharia. In fact, if the woman is divorced a revocable divorce, she should stay in her husband's home until her Iddah expires and her husband can anytime return her as his wife and she should not refuse that.
Allah knows best.