Signing divorce paper is not necessarily effective divorce
5-4-2016 | IslamWeb
Question:
Please help with a serious query. I got married according to Islamic law in India. Recently, my husband and I were fighting and he hit me three times around the face, in public. It happened at the worst time as I was already going through a period of severe mental breakdown (and seeing a pyschiatrist) and I was crazy with anger and forced him to come to a lawyer's office to sign divorce papers (I wanted to scare him into not doing it again). I have been having severe mental health issues with depression recently and have not been thinking straight. I went crazy with anger and took this most harsh step possible to make him understand as I had already tried all other options. I just wanted to do whatever I could to punish him and make him feel as humiliated as I did. Within two hours, we had found a lawyer and signed the papers. No verbal divorce was issued, only a written one, which I understand is permissible. However, I did not think it was final yet because:
a) it contained provisions like, "I agree that we have lived seperately for a period of six months," which was not true
b) there was a space for a witness to sign, which I thought was a condition for the divorce to be valid, and nobody was there to witness it
c) my husband and I both truly believed that we needed an Indian stamp on the paper for it to be certified by the government before it was final, and I thought that in between signing the papers and before getting the stamp on the paper this would show my husband how bad I felt due to his mistreatment of me and it would encourage him to treat me better in the future.
I never intended for us to be divorced within two hours of the incident. My husband, also in a fit of rage, agreed even though he was crying as he signed the paper. My question is, we have now been told this is a valid divorce by some people. We want to stay together and not be seperated. are we divorced or still married? How can it it possible that a couple can get divorced without being fully aware of it?
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.
We cannot give a judgment as to whether the marriage bond is still intact in your case or not. There are details that may require a clarification from your husband. We believe that it would be best to refer your case to the Islamic center in your country or consult a reliable scholar directly.
Generally speaking, we point out the following:
Firstly, writing the words of divorce is a metaphor for divorce (i.e., not an explicit divorce); so divorce does not take effect by writing it unless it is accompanied by the intention of the husband to issue a divorce. Please refer to fataawa 87034 and 89894.
Secondly, the divorce does not take effect by merely signing the divorce papers because writing down the words of divorce is considered merely an indirect expression or metaphor of divorce. In this case, the divorce does not take effect unless the husband actually had the intention to divorce his wife. Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ibraaheem Aal Ash-Shaykh, former Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, said, answering a similar question:
"There is no doubt that this signature is not regarded as one of the expressions of divorce at all, let alone that it would be an explicit divorce. Also, it is not one of the metaphors for divorce. It does not come under the heading of writing, because the husband did not write that he was divorcing his wife so that it may be regarded as a written divorce. The most that can be said about this matter is that he wrote his name below the words written by someone else. If he did not say any of the words that were written on the paper mentioned and he only wrote his name at the bottom, then it does not seem to us that divorce has taken place as a result of his signing this paper."
Thirdly, the presence of witnesses is not a condition to the validity of the divorce. Please, refer to fatwa 133297.
Fourthly, divorce issued in a state of anger takes effect unless the anger was so extreme that the husband was unaware of what he was saying, as has been underlined in fatwa 83467.
Fifthly, registering or stamping the divorce or not has no effect on its validity.
Sixthly, when a husband wrongfully hits his wife, then that is a serious, prohibited act. The husband and wife are enjoined to live in kindness and have mutual respect, as was commanded by their Lord. Allaah, The Exalted, says (what means): {...And due to the wives is similar to what is expected of them, according to what is reasonable. But the men have a degree over them (in responsibility and authority)...} [Quran 2:228]
Allaah knows best.