Question
- If a man gives one divorce to his wife and sometime into her iddah he wants to reconcile, does the wife have a say in this reconciliation? Is she forced to reconcile even if she doesn’t want to or isn’t ready to?
- Conditional divorce: can a man take back his condition? For example: “if you enter this house, you’re divorced”. Can he change his mind afterwards and take back that condition so that she enters the house and talaaq doesn’t occur?
- If a man says: ” if you enter this house in this week, you’re divorced”, will such a condition than only be valid for that week? What happens if she enters the house after that week passes?
Answer
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
If the husband gives the wife a revocable divorce (talaq raj’ee), the marriage is not terminated and the couple remains as husband and wife. Immediately after the divorce, the Iddah of the wife will commence. The husband has until the completion of the Iddah to do Ruju’ (revoke the divorce). Revoking the divorce can be done by actions or words (by actions e.g., kiss, caress, touch with passion, intercourse etc and by words e.g. you are still my wife, I take you back as my wife etc.) The wife doesn’t have a say in reconciliation (ruju’) as they are still husband and wife.
Nb: Reconciliation (ruju’) is specific to the actions of the husband and not the wife.
If however, the divorce is irrevocable (talaq baain), the marriage will be terminated and the wife will have the choice whether she wants to remarry her ex-husband or not.
If a man invokes a conditional divorce on his wife, the moment the condition occurs one revocable divorce (talaq raj’ee) will take effect eg. the husband says to the wife; if you enter the house you are divorced, thus the moment she enters the house a divorce will occur. The husband cannot change his mind and retract his statement.[1]
If, however, the husband made the divorce conditional to entering the house this week, divorce will only occur if the wife enters the house this week (whether day or night). If she enters the house after the passing of a complete week, divorce will not occur.
And Allah Ta’ala Knows Best
Mufti Kaleem Muhammad
Darul Iftaa, Jaamia Madinatul Uloom
Marabella Trinidad
www.fatwa-tt.com /www.jaamia.net
[1] المبسوط للسرخسي (6/ 111)
، وَإِنْ قَالَ: قُلْت لَك أَنْتِ طَالِقٌ إنْ كَلَّمْت فُلَانًا، وَقَالَتْ هِيَ: طَلَّقْتنِي فَالْقَوْلُ قَوْلُ الزَّوْجِ؛ لِأَنَّ تَعْلِيقَ الطَّلَاقِ بِالشَّرْطِ يَمِينٌ
الأصل المعروف بالمبسوط للشيباني (3/ 249)
ولوقال لَهَا أَنْت طَالِق إِن دخلت هَذِه الدَّار لم يبطل ذَلِك أبدا وَكَانَت طَالقا مَتى مَا دخلت الدَّار فَهَذِهِ يَمِين
