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Does a divorce take effect if the husband did not utter its words, nor send it in writing, but his family merely informed her of it?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If a man says to another, "Inform my wife of her divorce," the divorce takes effect immediately upon his utterance, whether the addressee informs her or not, according to the majority of jurists. As for the wife, if two just witnesses inform her that her husband has divorced her, she must observe the iddah (waiting period) based on their testimony, and she must abstain from him and separate from him if it is the third divorce. Some jurists hold that she observes the iddah based on the report of a single just witness, especially in the husband's absence. If the husband acknowledges the occurrence of the divorce, the doubt is removed; if he denies it, and the informant is just, the matter must be referred to the Sharia judge for a ruling.

Divorce becomes an irrevocable major divorce (bainunah kubra) with the third pronouncement. As for the first and second pronouncements, they are revocable (raj'i). Divorce becomes an irrevocable minor divorce (bainunah sughra) before consummation or upon the expiry of the iddah without a revocation.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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