During a quarrel, in a state of anger a man said to his wife “I divorce you (talaq dei diya)” only once. But immediately realizing what he said, he retracted and said “No, I did not mean it”. But the wife was very worried about it. After this incident the wife recollected (and it is only her doubt) that the husband had earlier said statements like “you are haram for me” a couple of times. But the husband categorically denies this. He maintains that, if at all, he would have said statements like “it is haram for me to say (something or other) to you”, and that too with the intention of correcting the wife and nothing else. Anyway, once reminded the husband paid kaffarah for having made such statements and breaking them. But the wife is still worried. Kindly let me know what the couple has to do according to Sharia.
Answer:
(Fatwa: 1229/B=214/TB=1433)
No Shariah ruling is applied to the doubt of the woman. Moreover, the husband denies the doubt of the woman; hence it is obvious that the husband has divorced his wife once with the word “I divorce you”. This caused one talaq raja’i. If the husband wants to keep his wife in his marital relation then he can take her back within her iddah period. He simply should say that he takes his wife back. Then he can keep her as wife. There is no need of any fresh nikah or halalah. The wife should remove all her doubts.
Allah (Subhana Wa Ta’ala) knows Best
Darul Ifta,
Darul Uloom Deoband