What is the ruling on divorce if it occurred three separate times via text messages and verbal pronouncements during states of anger and menstruation, with no clear intention of divorce, and does intercourse between the pronouncements affect their validity, and is it necessary for the wife to hear the pronouncement of divorce or for there to be witnesses?
Divorce by writing or messages takes effect if you intended the divorce, or if there is an indication thereof. If you doubted your intention at the time of writing the message, or forgot it, the divorce takes effect. The wife is not required to hear it, nor are witnesses required to be present.
Divorce during menstruation, or during a period of purity in which the husband had intercourse with his wife, does not take effect according to the more authoritative opinion. Similarly, divorce issued in extreme anger does not take effect.
Triple divorce counts as a single divorce according to the more authoritative opinion, whether one says: "You are divorced, you are divorced, you are divorced," or "You are divorced thrice," or "by three."
If a man divorces his wife and she enters her 'iddah (waiting period), then he divorces her again before taking her back, the second divorce does not take effect according to the more authoritative opinion, because divorce can only occur after a marriage contract or a رجعة (revocation/return to marital status).
Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026
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