I need your advice on a religious matter. My friend who got married last year has clashes with her husband’s family so she just came to her parents to spend some time to refresh herself and start again. But she was okay with her husband. Now the situation is this her husband’s family does not want her to come back and has asked her husband to break this marriage. Yesterday she got a text message from her husband that he is giving divorce to her and it was written three times. But she does not accept it whether it is valid or not. We contacted our local masjids’ Imams and one said it is valid while other said it is not. Can I have your advice on this?
(Note: the question was posed in the context of living in a non-Muslim country)
Answer
Please find out clearly the procedure that is followed in matters of Talaq amongst the Muslim community (where your friend lives). May be you may need to get advice from some lawyer. If the decision is primarily to be taken by an Imam, then you need to know which Imam is it going to be. I have a feeling that the Imam has to be first informed that no decision can be binding unless the person taking it is given freedom to decide. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that your friend’s husband should get a chance to decide without the influence of his family.
As for the correct Islamic way of conducting Talaq, the husband has to give it only once and then wait for three periods to pass and if he then decides to leave her, she will be divorced. If during this three month’s or so period he decides to reconcile with her, then the matter is over and she need not go through any other formality. Unfortunately many Muslim scholars accept an un-Islamic way of giving Talaq as valid as well, which is that if the husband ponounces Talaq three times in one sitting. I believe in this case you should try to convince the Imam Sahib that your friend should be allowed to live with her husband for three months during which if he revives his relations with her, then Talaq pronouncement would be nullified.