Home » Hanafi Fiqh » DarulUloomTT.net » Recapturing thoughts of divorce.

Recapturing thoughts of divorce.

Answered as per Hanafi Fiqh by DarulUloomTT.net

Q. Due to a lot of unintentional thoughts of divorce, at one point in my head/mind I was having a conversation with my wife, where she says “Can/could you divorce me or are you going to divorce me?” and I reply in my mind “Yes.” (But this conversation did not take place with my wife, it was only in my head and I had no intention of this). Later I had thought I had said this statement and later was trying to remember and recapture that moment and how/what I had said. So basically I was recapturing the past in an endeavour to remember what I might have said. I did realise later that I didn’t say it. But because of these continuous thoughts in my head, it was confusing me. Are these thoughts waswasa (Shaitan’s whispers)?

Even though I was more confident that I didn’t say it, I still was very confused about it. So a day later I was still trying to remember and recapture that particular moment and how/what I had said in my head. So basically I was recapturing the past in an endeavour to remember what I might have said because it was confusing me. And at one point due to a lot of thinking and recapturing in my head, without realising I was accidentally recapturing the following statement “You are divorced” and also saying “Yes” in my mind, instead of the one above. I got confused for a bit and started to recapture this particular statement. I then realised it wasn’t this particular statement that I had initially started to think, recall and recapture, but it was the one above noted in the first paragraph.

I feel this happened because of too much thinking and recapturing and my mind not thinking properly. Sometimes I feel that as I was trying to remember and recapture these statements in order to remember that particular moment I might have verbally said it. Would that count as a divorce?

I feel that if I did verbally say everything, it was because I was trying to recapture and remember that particular moment I might have said all this in the past, in order to be more clear. Would that count as a divorce?


A. The thoughts which you have described are waswasa (shaitan’s whispers) and hence, do not bring about a divorce.

With respect to the recapturing and remembering of the statements regarding divorce, these also do not bring about a divorce.

In the case where you were trying to remember what came to your mind on a particular date and then said a statement of divorce, this would not count as a divorce.

And Allah knows best.

Mufti Waseem Khan

This answer was collected from DarulUloomTT.net, which is operated under the supervision of Mufti Waseem Khan from Darul Uloom Trinidad and Tobago.

Read answers with similar topics: