Divorced his wife while drinking
12-10-2002 | IslamWeb
Question:
I divorced my wife while I was under the influence of alcohol 3 months ago. There is more to this incident. Please help decide my next move regarding this critical situation.
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
First of all we draw the attention of our brother to the fact that drinking wine is a great sin. The Prophet said: “Whoever drinks it in this world will be deprived of it in the Hereafter except if he repents” [Muslim].
The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, also said: “Verily Allah the Exalted and Majestic, made a covenant to those who drank intoxicants to make their drink Tinat al-Khabal. They said: Allah's Messenger, what is Tinat al-Khabal? He said: It is the sweat of the denizens of Hell or the pus of the denizens of Hell”. [Muslim].
Allah named intoxicants as impure and a handiwork of Satan, and ordered us to avoid it. So, drinking it is a major sin that could only be expiated by sincere repentance.
Therefore, we encourage our brother to hasten to repent before facing his death because sorrow brings nothing.
As for the effectiveness of the divorce of a drunk person, the Muslim scholars have different opinions.
The majority of Muslim scholars believe that such divorce is effective. Some others believe that if the drunken person does not perceive his words and action the divorce is not effective. This is one of the opinions of Imam Ahmad and Ibn Taymiyah 
adopted it. The evidence for the latter opinion is the Hadeeth of Maaiz when he admitted that he committed Zina (fornication or adultery) The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, asked him, “Did you drink wine?' He said, No, one of the companions stood and smelled him and did not find the smell of wine” [Al-Bayhaqi and Nasaa'i].
The reason of smelling is to find out whether he had drunk wine or not. If he were drunk then his confession is not valid. They say, since his confession was not valid that means his actions and words are also not valid just as the actions of an insane person are not valid because a drunken person pronounces words he does not mean. The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said: “Indeed actions are based on the intentions". This is the correct opinion.
Finally, he should hasten to repent and the divorce that is delivered in a state of drunkenness is invalid.
Allah knows best.