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Fatwa CenterWritten divorce metaphor of divorce
Question
Assalaamu alaykum. Please tell me, what if a man sent a written message to her wife and wrote, "I divorce you by a Khul’." but some conditions of the Khul’ were missing, so it is not a khul? My question is whether a divorce takes place anyway because he wrote the word, "I divorce you" or whether it does not take no effect and they remain married even if he wrote this word, "I divorce you" because it was for the Khul’ that he wrote that but some conditions were missing. Does this word, "I divorce you" count anyway (in this given context)? I know that if it had been said orally, then "I divorce you" would count even without the intention, but what if it it was done in writing and with the intention of a Khul’? May Allaah bless you for helping people and spending your time for us.
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.
We have already clarified in fatwa 89894 that written divorce is a metaphor of divorce and that divorce does not take place with a written divorce without the intention.
The expression which you mentioned in the question does not lead to divorce just by uttering it, let alone by only writing it, as it is not an explicit expression of divorce; rather, it is just a promise. Please refer to fatwa 269398.
If a Khul’ takes place with an explicit wording of divorce, then it is considered a divorce according to the view of most of the scholars, and this is the view that we adopt here at Islamweb.
However, we did not understand what you mean by saying that some conditions of the Khul’ were missing, so please clarify to us what you exactly mean by that so that we can answer this point appropriately.
Allah knows best.
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