Conditional pronouncements of divorce

Question

I am a Sunni Muslim married for ... years and have ... kids. My story starts like this that my husband and I had arguments back in september 2014 about economic issue. My husband was very angry and told me you are divorced if you do not transfer the child tax money and all other money you have in your account by Monday and you have to come down to my feet and ask for forgiveness and to change your behaviour i was angry also i kept saying no no to him he beat me up a lot when i was arguing with him i said even if we are to get separated i will not lesson to you and not do as you say when he heard that he got more angry and told me you are divorced, divorced if this is how you are going to be behaving...I left the place and went to my room and started crying there, and my husband left the house,,i never wanted this to happen i was just angry and stubborn.When my husband went to sleep i went down to his feet and asked for forgiveness and promised Allah that i will change my behavior i also wrote a check to my husband of what ever i had in my account i gave everything to him and i also wrote a letter to the child tax center to transfer everything to my husband on Monday..my husband regrets all this so much and he was crying and told me to forgive him and that he did not realize what he was saying to me and he told me now that you gave me your money and you did as i told you to do take all your money back i do not need anything from you everything of mine is yours just forgive me he just wanted me to be obident to him, he said i had no intention of talaq please be with me, we both love each other very much.. now my question is that is all this consider a divorce if yes how many counts of divorce is this. Taking the money back from him would be considered a divorce, and he also ask me to write to the child tax center to leave everything the same i did write a second letter saying not to transfer anything to my busband is this counted as divorce that he offered the money back and i took it from him ..is talaq in anger and in the state that the person does not have the intention of talaq and does not realize what he said counts as divorce. also is our nikak still valid or do we need to renew our nikak or is it ok to just contine the way we are how can we protect our marriage life from sin..can you please give a clear detailed answer.

Sohail ibn Arif · Accepted Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. As-salāmu ‘alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh. Your husband made two conditional pronouncements of divorce: a.) The first pronouncement of divorce was for 1 divorce conditional upon you not transferring the money by Monday. He regretted his actions and told you to cancel the transfer. A conditional divorce cannot be canceled or undone by the husband merely taking his statement back. The money was not transferred and one revocable divorce took place. [i] b.) In the second pronouncement of divorce, your husband pronounced 2 conditional divorces in the same statement: “you are divorced, divorced if this is how you are going to be behaving.” Therefore, should this condition be met that would be two additional divorces unless your husband meant emphasis by repeating the term divorce twice, in which case only one additional divorce would take place. [ii] Since the condition of the second pronouncement has not been met yet, only one revocable divorce has taken place. For details on how to cancel this second pronouncement of conditional divorce so that it is not effected in the future can be seen at Fatwa #27733: http://www.askimam.org/public/question_detail/27733 As long as your waiting period [iddah] (three menstrual cycles or three months if you don't experience menses. If you are pregnant then the iddah is until delivery) has not finished the husband can take you back by saying, “I'm taking you back into my nikah,” or through intimacy. Your husband needs to be very careful with his words. The words of divorce in clear terms are valid without intention. He should also be very regretful and sorry for hurting you and make a firm commitment never to return to that sort of behavior again. And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best Sohail ibn Arif, Student Darul Iftaa Chicago, USA Checked and Approved by, Mufti Ebrahim Desai. وإذا أضافه إلى الشرط وقع عقيب الشرط اتفاقا مثل أن يقول لامرأته: إن دخلت الدار فأنت طالق [i] الفتاوى الهندية، ١/ ٤٢٠ فقال عنيت بالأولى الطلاق وبالثانية والثالثة إفهامها صدق ديانة وفي القضاء طلقت ثلاثا كذا في فتاوى [ii] قاضي خان المرجع السابق، ١/ ٣٥٦

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