Darul Uloom Trinidad & Tobago

Question: As salaamu alaikum,

There is a scenario with respect to divorce that I need a fatwa on. If a husband says to his wife “do whatever you want,  we have no kind of relationship anymore”. Is that an implied irrevocable divorce?  This is how it happened:

Husband left a bit angry earlier in the day as food was not prepared on time. Later wife remembered that they were invited by her immediate family who were keeping up Eidul Adhaa by cooking the Qurbaani meat and inviting some relatives.  Still in a bad mood he comes home and his wife tells him about it, and he refused to go. Not wanting her family to feel bad she asked his permission to go as it was about 10mins away from home and that’s when he said those words.  When trying to tell him about the severity of what he said after he cooled down. He explained that a divorce was never what he meant.  He just thought that the relationship could be better but his words seemed pretty clear cut. What would be the ruling in this case? What should the wife do because she’s concerned about living in sin.

Jazaakallah

Answer:

Waalaikum as Salaam,

Because of the fact that these can be used as  unexpressed words of divorce and a divorce can be implied from these, the intention of the husband is needed to clarify the matter. If he says that he did not intend divorce, then no divorce will take place, and if he says that he intended divorce, then an implied irrevocable divorce will take place. Seeing that he said that he did not intend/mean divorce, then no divorce has occurred.

And Allah Knows best.

Mufti Waseem Khan.

12/11/2014