Darul Uloom Trinidad & Tobago

Q. Due to a lot of unintentional thoughts of divorce, at one point in my head/mind I was having a conversation with my wife, where she says “Can/could you divorce me or are you going to divorce me?” and I reply in my mind “Yes.” (But this conversation did not take place with my wife, it was only in my head and I had no intention of this). Later I had thought I had said this statement and later was trying to remember and recapture that moment and how/what I had said. So basically I was recapturing the past in an endeavour to remember what I might have said. I did realise later that I didn’t say it. But because of these continuous thoughts in my head, it was confusing me. Are these thoughts waswasa (Shaitan’s whispers)?

Even though I was more confident that I didn’t say it, I still was very confused about it. So a day later I was still trying to remember and recapture that particular moment and how/what I had said in my head. So basically I was recapturing the past in an endeavour to remember what I might have said because it was confusing me. And at one point due to a lot of thinking and recapturing in my head, without realising I was accidentally recapturing the following statement “You are divorced” and also saying “Yes” in my mind, instead of the one above. I got confused for a bit and started to recapture this particular statement. I then realised it wasn’t this particular statement that I had initially started to think, recall and recapture, but it was the one above noted in the first paragraph.

I feel this happened because of too much thinking and recapturing and my mind not thinking properly. Sometimes I feel that as I was trying to remember and recapture these statements in order to remember that particular moment I might have verbally said it. Would that count as a divorce?

I feel that if I did verbally say everything, it was because I was trying to recapture and remember that particular moment I might have said all this in the past, in order to be more clear. Would that count as a divorce?

A. The thoughts which you have described are waswasa (shaitan’s whispers) and hence, do not bring about a divorce.

With respect to the recapturing and remembering of the statements regarding divorce, these also do not bring about a divorce.

In the case where you were trying to remember what came to your mind on a particular date and then said a statement of divorce, this would not count as a divorce.

And Allah knows best.

Mufti Waseem Khan