Can Someone Divorce His Wife in His Mind? (Shafi’i)

Answered by Shaykh Abdurragmaan Khan

Question: Assalam alaykum,

A man has visited his in-laws who told him to divorce his wife. The man said in his mind to his wife, its your choice, if you want a divorce then so be it. She said to him: “Yes, I wants a divorce”. So the man said in his mind ‘so be it, it is a divorce’. However the actual word divorce was uttered out as speech. But then he uttered the word. Has a divorce taken place?

Answer: Wa alaykum al-Salam

The words that he uttered aloud according to your narration above is, “so be it, it is divorce” does not constitute a divorce. A divorce would only be valid if he says to his wife, “you are divorced” or “I divorce you”; or he utters to himself or a third person, “my wife is divorced” or “I divorce my wife” and other such clear unambiguous statements.

And Allah knows best
Wassalam
[Shaykh] Abdurragmaan Khan

Shaykh Abdurragmaan received ijazah ’ammah from various luminaries, including but not restricted to: Habib Umar ibn Hafiz—a personality who affected him greatly and who has changed his relationship with Allah, Maulana Yusuf Karaan—the former Mufti of Cape Town; Habib ‘Ali al-Mashhur—the current Mufti of Tarim; Habib ‘Umar al-Jaylani—the Shafi‘i Mufti of Makkah; Sayyid Ahmad bin Abi Bakr al-Hibshi; Habib Kadhim as-Saqqaf; Shaykh Mahmud Sa’id Mamduh; Maulana Abdul Hafiz al-Makki; Shaykh Ala ad-Din al-Afghani; Maulana Fazlur Rahman al-Azami and Shaykh Yahya al-Gawthani amongst others.