Q: A husband lives in an Arab country where he gives three talaaqs to his wife in one sitting. The judge in the country’s Sharia court rules that this is counted as one single talaaq (based on the fatwa of Ibn Taymiyah and certain other scholars). Should the husband accept this ruling based on the principle حكم الحاكم يرفع الخلاف (“the ruling of the judge will dispel the differences”) even though he himself is a Hanafi, and thus will he have the possibility to remarry his divorced wife since this is what the court ruled?
A: The Sahaabah, Taabi’een, Tab’ut-Taabi’een as well as all the four schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maaliki, Shaafi and Hambali) are all unanimous on the fact that if a person issues three Talaaqs individually or collectively (to a women with whom the nikaah was consummated), three Talaaqs will take place and it will be Haraam for them to live together.
And Allah Ta’ala (الله تعالى) knows best.
Answered by:
Mufti Zakaria Makada
Checked & Approved:
Mufti Ebrahim Salejee (Isipingo Beach)