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Fatwa CenterDivorce because of husband's stress-related disease
Question
After 19 years of marriage with 4 children currently me and my wife live close but we are seperated. Unfortunately before I realised I was in need of medical help, I issued my wife with Talaqs. With words similiar to "From me you have Talaq", on more then two occasions. Mentally I was in a disoriented state, the night before I issued one of the talaqs, I was considering crashing my car into a lamp post. When I issued the talaq I threw a table in front of me to the floor. This was really out of character for me as I am a happy and calm person normally. On two occassions since I read the isitkhara dua, on the night at about 1am on one occassion, I saw my son asking me to come home. On the second time near the morning I saw my wife. After this I sought medical help, evenually I was diagnosed with Post Polio Syndrome (PPS) by a specialist Doctor, this basically means in a day I run out of energy quickly and need to pace myself. I am not sure if this is related to PPS but most days I find it difficult to sleep completely through the night. If I do not get enough sleep I become more emotional in a day, my mental well being gets affected. Over the last 4 years I have had times when I cry uncontrollably on my own, I loose my temper quickly in family situations. Which is really out of character for me. I am on depression tablets as the Doctor feels chemicals in my brain might have got effected. I got polio at eight months old this left me with permanent walking problems, PPS strikes a lot later in life in my case more then 30 years older. I didn't know I was really unwell with depression, sleeping problems and Post Polio Syndrome symptoms including fatigue and also I believe I had OCD (Obsessive compulsive disorder) repetitive thoughts that caused me anguish and all of these things made me disoriented. Can me and my wife continue with married life so our children can have a proper family? With normal health I would not have issued the talaqs.
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, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
First of all, we ask Allaah to safeguard and protect you from any affliction and we advise you to supplicate Allaah devotedly as much as possible to cure you from any disease as He is over everything Omnipotent and everything is easy for Him. So, you should think well of Him as Allaah compensates a person according to what he thinks of Him.
You should know that mere anger and whispers do not prevent divorce from taking place unless a person becomes unconscious of what he says and utters the word of divorce unconsciously, or that he is overcome by whispers and utters the word of divorce without intending it.
Ash-Shaafi’i 
said: “If a person lost control of his mind due to his natural disposition (upon which he was born) or by an illness that happened accidentally to him without him causing it by sinning, then neither divorce, nor prayer, nor Hudood (plural of Hadd, i.e. the corporal punishment determined by the Islamic Law) would be applicable to him, as he is like an idiot, an insane person or a person who is overcome by whispers.....etc.”
For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 121374 and 83467.
This is the general rule and you are more aware of your situation when you uttered divorce and the number of divorces which took place according to what we have clarified.
It should be pointed out that the wordings which lead to divorce are of two kinds:
a) Clear words of divorce, like ‘you are divorced’; this wording leads to divorce even if one did not intend it.
b) Unclear words of divorce, like the wording which you have mentioned ‘you took divorce from me’. Such wording does not lead to divorce unless one had intended it. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 85521.
Allaah Knows best.
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