[The Ruling on Divorce and Revocation Without Intention]

Mufti:

Alsayyed Muhammad b. Abdallah Awad Al-Muayyady

تاريخ النشر: December 25, 2025

Fatwa number: 18687

Number of views: 8

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[The Ruling on Divorce and Revocation Without Intention]

Fatwa number: 18687

Question: An ignorant man wished to divorce his wife and took with him another man to the wife’s family. When they arrived, the companion coached his friend to pronounce the divorce, saying: “Say: she is divorced,” so he said, “She is divorced.” Then he said to him: “Say: I have borne witness and taken her back,” then said to him: “Say: she is divorced,” and he said that. Then he said to him: “Say: I have borne witness and taken her back,” then said to him: “Say: she is…” and he said that. This is what happened, while the divorcer was ignorant and did not intend to divorce her three times; he only wished to issue the divorce people customarily do, then take her back if they later so choose.
Does this divorcer incur the ruling of three pronouncements—so that she is not lawful for him until she marries another husband—or is he bound only by what he intended?

The answer—and Allah is the One who grants success: If the divorcing man had no intention regarding the revocation, but merely repeated the revocation after his companion, and then the divorce—without having an intention of revocation nor a will for it—then such revocations are of no consequence and are not counted; this is as between him and Allah Most High. As for the outward ruling, the divorce and the revocation are recognized; and if the revocation is invalid, then the subsequent divorce does not occur. On this basis, what occurred from the aforementioned man is one pronouncement of divorce—and, as we said, this is as between him and Allah Most High. If there is no disputant against the husband, then he is not to be opposed; but if the guardian or the wife accuses him, he swears that he did not intend by those words a revocation, and that he only uttered them by prompting.
The proof for what we have mentioned is what is narrated: that the Prophet (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) put under oath the man who came to seek a ruling concerning his thrice-pronounced divorce of his wife, that he (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) had intended only one; so the Prophet (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) counted it as one.
Supporting what we have stated are the ḥadīths: “There is no deed except with intention,” and “Actions are only by intentions, and every person shall have only what he intended.”
Source : Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.1