His family forced him to divorce his wife

29-1-2009 | IslamWeb

Question:

The following things was happening in my life within a few days: 1. One of my family member say me, that she(my wife) say something like: she kill me, attack me etc; then i was reached in extreme anger and said if she told like this then: she is divorced, divorced, divorced. But she did not told this at all. 2. Then One of my family member insist me to give her(my wife) court divorce otherwise she(my family member) will take suicide, and they(my family members) are able to take my signature in a paper where divorce statement was written but i have no intention to give divorce, just do it to stop them(my family members) from any unwanted situation. 3. Lastly all of my family members are forced me and bit me to say divorce word again otherwise they will lose my job and etc, and then i was bound to said the three divorce at a time without intention to give divorce her; I just say it to protect myself and protect my job. Now i want to know about the validity of our marriage relationship. Still my wife is with me. If it positive or negative please describe it according to Quran and Sunnah.

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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 is His slave and Messenger.

 

Your question contained three issues:

1. Conditioning the divorce of your wife three times upon her uttering the threatening words which you mentioned in the question. If it is really confirmed that she did not utter those words, then this divorce does not take place.
2. Writing the word divorce of your wife while not willing divorce. Writing the word divorce is one of the metaphors of divorce. Therefore, if the husband did not utter the clear word of divorce, and he did not intend it when writing it, then divorce does not take place. For more benefit, refer to Fatwa 89894.
3. Your family forcing you to divorce your wife and beating you for this purpose, and threatening you to lose your job and other things which they are able to do to you. If this really happened, then this is a kind of forced divorce and divorce does not take place in this case. It is clarified in Sharee’ah that a person who is forced to do something is not held accountable for it. Allaah Says (what means): {…except him who is forced thereto and whose heart is at rest with Faith…}[Quran 16:106] Furthermore, Abu Tharr Al-Ghifaari narrated that the Prophet said: “Allaah has forgiven my nation for what they do by mistake, or due to forgetfulness and what they are forced to do." [Ibn Maajah]. Besides, the Prophet said: ''There is no divorce and no emancipation  (freeing a slave) in case of duress.”

Finally, it should be mentioned that it is not permissible for a family to force their son to divorce his wife, let alone punishing him or threatening him with something that will harm him if he does not do so. It is an obligation to advise those people to fear Allaah otherwise they are unjust, and injustice is darkness on the Day of Judgment.

Allaah Knows best.