Divorce via Messaging

10-1-2026 | IslamWeb

Question:

Asalamu aleykum sheikh. I texted my wife you are not my wife again in 2011 but I had no intention to divorce. Her step father said it's divorce. But I took her back two months later through my parents. In Feb 2024 I wrote her a letter that I divorced her with the second dalaq. In April 2024 I texted her that I took her back as my wife. In Sept 2024 I wrote her a letter that I divorced her with the last and final dalaq. I want to ask if the first dalaq happened. We have 7 children. Thanks.

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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.

Matters of divorce are not suitable for being issued fatwas remotely. What is correct is that the husband should present the case in person to trustworthy scholars who are qualified to issue legal verdicts, so that they may question him in detail and ascertain the true nature of what occurred.

As for the general legal ruling, we draw attention to the following points:

A husband’s statement to his wife, “You are not my wife,” is not an explicit declaration of divorce. Rather, it is an allusive expression (kināyah), and divorce does not occur through it unless accompanied by intention. Ibn Qudāmah () said in al-Mughnī: “An explicit statement effects divorce without intention, whereas an allusive statement does not effect divorce unless it is intended.” [End quote.]

According to the view we consider strongest, writing a divorce in mobile messages or similar means, without verbally pronouncing it, takes the ruling of an allusive expression; therefore, divorce does not occur through it unless there is an intention to effect it.

Furthermore, if a husband takes his wife back believing that a divorce has occurred, such reconciliation does not result in a divorce if it later becomes clear to him that the divorce did not take place.

Ibn Taymiyyah () said: “Likewise, if he acts out of caution and takes his wife back, fearing that the divorce may have occurred through it, or believing that the divorce had occurred through it, then no divorce takes place.” [End quote.]

Allah knows best.